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THE UNIVERSITY 
OF ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


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University of Illinois Library 


DEC 23 1995 








ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2021 with funding from 
University of Illinois Uroana-Champaign 


https://archive.org/details/aspirationsoinat0Oheck_3 


a 


ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


BY 


I. T. HECKER, 


AUTHOR OF “‘QUESTIONS OF THE SOUL.” 


NEW YORK: 
JAMES B. KIRKER, 
Sil BROAD W.A-Y. 


M.DCCC.LVII, 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
I, T. HECKER, 
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. ; 


CONTENTS. 


}4 MM 


PAGE 

~ I—Taz Dawn, P ; j PG 

‘Ji.—Tue Reauty, . . é ; 15 

" XX III.—Loyatry, z 21 

IV.—Cnoosine THE Way, . , : 26 

7 4 a pat ConFESSIONS Bt 

“VI.—“ Retieion,” OF 35 

ain *VII.— Cnonon,” Aw Earnest SEEKER, 40 

'y VIU.—Tue Srarcu, . : ° : 44 

3 IX.—HeEatTuHen PuHILosorry, , ; we 49 

X.—GERMAN PuiLosopny, » ° 58 

XI.—Frenou PuiLosopxy, ‘ ‘ - 68 

, _» XII.— Aspirations or Reason, ; : 76 

t XII.—Apmisstons, ; u . 84 

> XIV.—Tzstmory, : . : : 93 

XV.—AGREEMENT, . ° . vir 299 

XVI.—Wnuirner? - . . ; 108 

ti 

~ 811860 


6 CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

~~) XVII.—ReEason, . : : ; Paes 5 
XV UI.—Free-Witt, : é - : 128 
XIX.—-Human Natourr, . ° ° ~ Aah 
XX.—JUSTIFIOATION, . : : : 152 
XXI.—SEOTARIANISM, : : : - 162 
XXII.—Tue Resvtrs, : ° - 174 
XXIII.—Reason, . ; “ - 198 
XXIV .—ConrTInvATION, : ‘ : 207 
XXV.—FReEE-W111, ; : : - 219 
XXVI.—HumMaAn NATURE, ‘ : . 226 
XXVII.—ContinvatTIon, : ; F . 238 
XXVIUI.-—Justirication, . ; ° ‘ 250 
~~X X1X.—InpIvIDUALITY, ; : . . 262 
>» XXX.—UNIVERSALITY, . é ; ; 279 
> XXXI.—Cunvurcn, . : , “pa - eee 
—> XXXII.—Aovrnoriry, ; ; : ; 297 
XXXIII.—APpPLiances, : 5 ; ae $s 
XXXIV.—FELLowsHIP, : ° . : 329 
XXX V.—MeEmor!iats, : ° . . 844 


—3 XXXVI.—Conotusion, . ° ; ‘ 358 


PREFACE. 


Tus book claims the attention of a large 
body of our intelligent countrymen. 

Many of them are born and brought up with- 
out any definite religious belief; and no sooner 
are the religious aspirations of the soul awakened; 
than they go forth to seek a religion which, while 
it answers and supports these, does not gainsay 
the dictates of Reason. 

Others receive early religious instructions, and, 
as soon as the eye of Reason opens, they find that 
many of the doctrines taught them in their child- 
hood and youth, violate its plainest dictates, and 
shock the clearest convictions of conscience. 


8 PREFACE. 


Loyal to Reason, they repudiate these false tenets, 
and endeavor to find or construct a religion agree- 
able to the laws of man’s intelligence, and com- 
mensurate with all the wants of Human Nature. 

Another class have discarded all denominable 
religions, and betake themselves to the different 
movements of the day in hopes of obtaining the 
solutions of the dark enigmas of life, and of find- 
ing the satisfaction which their religious instincts 
demand. 

The following pages are addressed to these 
men. Let them be read in the spirit in which 
they were written, in earnestness, in sincerity, and 
in unswerving loyalty to Truth. 


THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 





if 
The Dawn. 


*“ How beautiful that yesterday, that stood 
Over us like arainbow! Iam alone. 
The past is past.” A, SMITH, 


HE first sensations of the happiness of our 
being, consist in the pleasure to look upon, ° 
and enjoy the exquisite charms which nature 
spreads with a lavish hand every where, to attract 
and win our attention. 

The flowers, the sea, the air, the sky, the 
whole earth, is instinct with and breathes a life 
which entrances our senses, steals into and dilates 
the soul, and imparadises the heart. 

1* 


10 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


Nature, in all and through all things, smiles 
on usin our childhood. Fascinated by her charms, 
we yield ourselves willing captives to her em- 
braces, and are happy beyond measure, and we 
know it not. 

Such are childhood’s opening scenes, and its 
early blessings. Were these only lasting, life 
would seem sufficient joy, and earth a paradise. 

But kind nature deceived us. We were not 
happy. ‘This was only an infant’s dream of bliss ; 
a faint echo of lost Eden ; an enchantment whose 
charm was soon broken; and, alas, we were left 
alone! and strangers to that nature which ap- 
peared as though it were “bone of our bone and 
flesh of our flesh.” 

Childhood’s sweet blossoms are crushed ; and 
we find ourselves strangers every where, to every 
one, to our own selves even! Mystery covers all 
that hitherto stood open to our gaze and seemed so 

familiar. It is, indeed, strange to be conscious of 
— Joneliness in the wide world of things and exist- 
ences, while all is around, and so near us! To 
stand apart, to feel ourselves outside of all things ! 
To be fearfully alone, and to discover the prophet 
speaking our own language: ‘‘ I beheld the earth, 
and lo it was void and nothing ; and the heavens, 
and there was no light in them. I beheld the 


THE DAWN. 11 


birds of the air, they were gone, and lo there was 
no man !” * 

What has robbed us of our early joys? Is 
childhood’s blissful vision for ever gone? Oh, we 
ask no ray of light to see into the future, we would 
be a child again ! 

Alas! its fair dreams have fled. Reality is 
making its prey of all that was so beautiful to be- 
hold. The flowers look faded ; the song of the 
birds is cheerless ; the air has lost all its fresh- 
ness ; the earth, the sea, the sky, and all things 
are as though they were not. All is void: the 
heart forsaken ; paradise is closed ; the golden age 
is past ; and the soul, like the fabled Psyche, no 
longer content with past imperfect joys, is doomed 
to toil and wo, until it has realized the promises of 
its new-born capacities. 

This is life’s greatest moment, when the soul 
unfolds capacities which reach beyond earth’s 
boundaries. We seem no longer the beings we 
were. New depths are broken up in the soul. 
Hidden energies come forth to light. A fresh life 
stirs within us. We know what we see is not 
what we seek, and what we seek we know not. 
Dimly opens to ottr vision a loftier and fairer world, 
promising an ampler bliss. The soul beholds its 


* Jeremiah. 


12 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. °- 


goal, and like the butterfly which has escaped 
the chrysalis, finds now that its lot is away ! 

All great minds have recognized this fact : 
that man has capacities to conceive sublime 
truths ; powerful aspirations, noble presentiments 
which carry the soul beyond the region of sense, 
and lead it on to that brighter world where 
dwells the First True, the First Good, the First 
Fair—the eternal type of all perfections, and aim 
of all our strivings ;— 


“That even in savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings 
For the good they comprehend not.” * 


It is written on every page and breathed 
through all the works of genius. The philoso- 
phers, from Plato to Kant, vainly strove to sound 
these secret depths of the soul; the poets, from 
the author of ‘‘ Prometheus Bound” to the author 
of the ‘‘ Intimations of Immortality,” exhausted 
their gifts to express it; the pencil and the 
chisel have alike failed adequately to embody this 
mysterious birth of the conscious soul,—a_ birth 
which is the starting point of all philosophy, the 
ideal of all genius, and the basis of all religious 
beliefs. 


* Hiawatha. 


THE DAWN. 13 


No man of the world can be wholly unaware 
of the moment in his soul’s history when he first 
became distinctly conscious of his own personal 
existence. It is this fact which throws so strange 
an interest around that most beautiful creation of - 
genius, Undine. 

How many hearts have thrilled ; how many 
a one has recognized that the sentiments are 
drawn from the secret depths of his own being, 
which Undine expresses, when she exclaims, half 
musing with herself, half inquiring from her new- 
found teacher : 

“¢< There must be something lovely, but at the 
same time something most awful about a souL! 
In the name of God, holy man, were it not better 
that we never shared a gift so mysterious ?’ 

“She paused and restrained her tears as if 
waiting for an answer. She, however, seemed 
to have eyes for no one but the holy man ; a fear- 
ful curiosity was painted on her features, and this 
made her emotion appear terrible to others. 

‘““¢ Heavily must the soul weigh down its pos- 
sessor,’ she pursued, when no one returned her 
any answer; ‘very heavily! for already its ap- 
proaching image overshadows me with anguish 
and mourning, and, alas! I have till now been so 
merry and light hearted,’” * 


* Undine, ch. 3. 


14 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


Every effort to undo the soul’s recognition of 
the great fact of its existence, seems but to fix it 
more firmly. We may writhe and struggle ; we 
may resolve to be as we were, and these efforts tend 
only to make this mysterious and new-awakened 
life more powerfully felt. For weal or for woe 
it is 

“Born to perish never, 
Which neither listlessness nor mad endeavor, 
Nor man, nor boy, 
Nor all that is at enmity with joy, 
Can utterly abolish or destroy.” * 


* Wordsworth, 


II. 


The Beality. 


* These struggling tides of life that seem 
In wayward, aimless course to tend, 
Are eddies of the mighty stream 
That rolls to an appointed end.” 
BrYAnt. 


HE soul naturally aspires to something which 

is better, higher, nobler, greater than itself. 
This aspiration is no fiction. Tor every act of a 
created being presupposes other existences. 

We cannot think where there is nothing to be 
thought. We cannot love where there is nothing 
to be loved. We cannot act where there is nothing 
whereupon to act. Nothing can come of nothing. 

The denial of this is the denial of the things 
we see, touch, taste, hear and smell; it is the 
denial of our own existences, the world’s existence, 


16 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


and God’s existence. It is the denial of all things. 
For the evidence of our being, and the evidence 
of the world’s being, and the evidence of God’s 
being, are seen simultaneously, and enter into one 
and the same fact of consciousness. 

And the certitude of their several existences, 
is of equal authority ; for, although the organs 
through which Reason operates are not precisely 
of the same character, nevertheless Reason is one 
and indivisible, and is of equal authority in all 
that it duly attests. 

Every operation of our faculties, therefore, is 
an incontestable evidence of the real being of 
something independent of our own being. 

The certainty of our faculties is not only in- 
contestable in regard to the fact of other existences, 
their certainty is equally incontestable in regard 
to the qualities and characteristics of those exist- 
ences. 

A rose does not affect us in the same way as a 
fine strain of music ; the sight of the ocean does 
not excite the same emotions as the society of our 
friends or families ; the remembrance of the 
Traitor Arnold produces quite different impres- 
sions from that of the patriot Washington. 

Whilst we have remained the same, we have 
been subject to very diverse impressions. Why 


THE REALITY. 17 


is this? The reason is simple and plain. The 
objects before us were changed, and these being 
of a different character, we were consequently dif- 
ferently affected. For it is not the mind that 
creates things, or originates their qualities or 
characteristics, but it is these which inform and 
shape the mind. 

The mind, therefore, takes cognizance of the 
existence not only of things, but also of their qual- 
ities and characteristics, and its authority is no less 
reliable in the latter functions of its activity than 
in the former. 

But the cognizance of existences and of their 
qualities is the cognizance of Truth,—for Truth is 
all which is or exists. The mind of man, there- 
fore, is the organ of Truth. 

We take, therefore, our stand upon the un- 
questionable certitude of our faculties, and will 
permit no attempt to undermine their authority. 

A well-organized and healthy mind will not 
allow an entrance to the slightest doubt concern- 
ing the evident authority of the operations of its 
own faculties. 

To entertain such a doubt is no mark of wis- 
dom, but rather a proof of folly. For it involves 
the palpable absurdity of proving that worthless 
which serves as the basis and instrument of proof. 


18 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


Existence is not-a dream, but a solemn reality. 
Life was not given to be thrown away on miserable 
sophisms, but to be employed in earnest search 
after Truth. 

There is a doubt, however, which springs from 
a deficiency of evidence, or from a lack of informa- 
tion. This we respect, for it is an honest doubt— 
a mark of an honest, and the sign of the working 
of an independent mind. It 


“ Springs like a shoot, around the stock of truth ; 
And it is nature, from height to height, 
On to the summit prompts us.” * 


The other kind of doubt, the pretended doubt, 
the one which professes to doubt whether the light 
we see be light, or whether what we know we 
know ; this is mental cowardice, or the symptom 
of a diseased intellect. 

One day, Dr. Johnson was asked by Boswell 
what he thought of the pretended demonstration 
of certain would-be philosophers of the non- 
existence of matter? The Dr. answered with 
alacrity by striking his foot with mighty force 
against a large stone till he rebounded from it, 
“‘T refute it thus.” 

Let those whom this answer does not suffice, 


* Dante, 


THE REALITY. 19 


be sent to an Insane Asylum ; for, according to 
their own showing, if one has no certitude of any 
thing, they condemn themselves to an eternal 
silence, or to talk nothing but nonsense. 

To doubt, therefore, the evidence of our facul- 
ties, is a sign of an unsound intellect ; to deny 
the authority of their evidence, is to banish one- 
self outside of the domain of Reason, and, let us 
add, out of that also of humanity. 

For the men that history enshrines on her 
immortal pages, the men whose memories are 
embalmed in the hearts of their fellows for all 
ages, were men who placed unfaltering trust in 
the loftiest convictions of the soul, and consecrated 
life and death to their realization. 

Men whose minds were of this temper the 
whole human race cherish with enthusiasm and 
deathless attachment. Nations rear monuments 
to perpetuate the remembrance of their noble 
deeds. ‘The bare mention of their names causes 
the hearts of men to palpitate with life, and fires 
the breasts of millions with heroic resolves. Such 
is the faith of man. These are the sentiments of 
humanity. And sentiments of such majesty, im- 
parted to the entire human race, can not but be 
the impressions of the Divinity. 

A philosophy, therefore, which does not justify 


90 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


and support the high and glorious promises of our 
nature, misapprehends the powers of Reason, fails 
to recognize the nobility of the soul, is false to its 
mission, and deserves not a thought of a human 
being who respects himself, or who compraneaus 
the great end of existence. 

Resting, then, on the primary certitude of the 
operations of the human faculties as an incontest- 
able and immovable basis, we affirm with their 
authority, and that of their great Author, that the 
very fact of the soul’s possessing convictions which 
stretch forth beyond earth’s horizon, is indisputable 
evidence of a world of realities corresponding to 
them, 


IIL. 
Lovrlty. 


“ Call to mind from whence ye sprung; 
Ye were not formed to live the life of brutes; 
But virtue to pursue, and knowledge high.” 
DANTE. 


AN is gifted with an intelligence to see natu- 
rally into a world of more momentous real- 
ities, and as surely, as he sees with his eyes the 
material objects in the world around him. This 
world of unrealized realities is within his reach. 
For what reason has man in being, if the 
noblest desire of his breast is the thirst after truth, 
and the truth does not exist, or exists beyond the | 
scope of his capacities? If this be man’s lot, 
then better were we quiet earth again, or rather, 
better had we never been aught but dust! 


92 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 
> 


But the fault does not lie here, for truth does 
exist ; the striving after it is ample evidence that 
it does. Nor is man doomed, Tantalus-like, to 
strive after truth in vain ; for reason was given 
the capacity to lay hold of truth. The fault, then, 
is not on the side of truth, or in our faculties. 

Wherein les the fault 2? The fault is in our 
neglect to use our faculties, or in not using them 
rightly. 

And truth is not an ugly and merciless sphinx, 
but a fair and gentle:maid. Eagerly she goes 
forth to meet the earnest seeker, and is easily 
won by the heroic lover. Harnestness in the 
search after truth, heroism in following it when 
found, these are the essential requisites for those 
who aspire to her friendship and love. 

With a manly heart and bold resolves there is 
no true conception of the mind, no real aspiration 
of the heart, which may not be reached and real- 
ized. ‘‘ Else desire was given to no end.” 

Indifference or unconcernedness in regard to 
the realization of the bright inspirations of divine 
truths, is no mark of a noble mind. This is an 
unmistakable evidence of the absence of those 
original convictions which constitute the soul’s 
nobility and the dignity of our nature. 


LOYALTY. 23 


“Fame of such the world hath none, 
Nor suffers; Mercy and Justice scorn them both. 
Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.” * 


These lofty aspirations, these boundless in- 
stincts, are traces of man’s native nobility, and 
indicate the grandeur of his destiny. We should 
cherish them as our fondest hopes, and hold them 
dearer than life. Better live in a tub like Dioge- 
nes, and feed on wild roots, than submit to the 
dreadful degradation of yielding them up unreal- 
ized. For man has no other reason for living, 
but to unite his noblest capacities to their proper 
objects. This, and this alone, is the accomplish- 
ment of the great end of his present existence. 

They give up the soul, and shrink into the 
grovelling instincts of the worm, who 


“ Pause not to inquire 
Why we are here, and what the reverence 
Man owes to man, and what the mystery 
That links us to the greater world, beside 
Whose borders we but hover for a space.” tf 


Our sublime destiny and supreme happiness 
lie in the answer to our highest aspirations. The 
highest objects correspond to our highest capacities. 
Above Reason there is the Most High alone. 


* Dante. + Bryant. 


24 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE, 


The Most High is the answer to our high aspira- 
tions and glorious destiny. Nothing less than 
the Infinite can content man’s noble and most 
sovereign Reason. 

But the relation of the soul with the infinite 
is Religion. Religion, therefore, is the answer to 
that cry of Reason which nothing can silence, that 
aspiration of the soul which no created thing can 
meet, that want of the heart which all creation 
cannot supply. 

Where shall we find Religion ? 


IV. 


Choosing the Way, 


“One good gift has the fatal apple given— 
Your Reason :—let it not be oversway’d 
By tyrannous threats to force you into faith 
*Gainst all external sense and inward feeling.” 
Byron. 


HERE is a large class of men who cherish the 

lofty aspirations of their nature, and are loyal 
to their religious convictions. They feel deeply 
their religious necessities, and yearn and seek 
after a religion which, at the same time that it 
answers to these wants, does not contradict the 
universal dictates of reason. 

We have it from authentic sources of informa- 
tion, that this class of minds compose more than 
one-half of our population who have arrived at the 
age of manhood ; and it includes many, if not 


«} 


— 


26 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


most of our intellectually-gifted and noble-minded 
countrymen. 

What has brought about this state of things ? 
Does it spring from a want of religious sentiment, 
or earnestness on their part ? We opine that it 
does not. No people are more susceptible of 
religious impressions, no people are more in earnest 
in all that regards religion, than the American 
people. Witness the countless churches, the Sun- 
day-school unions, missionary enterprises, Bible 
and Tract societies, and other religious institu- 
tions, broadcast over this extensive land. The 
man who would charge our people with infidelity, 
skepticism, or indifference in religious matters, 
would only display his unacquaintance with the 
heart and mind of the nation. 

What, then, is the cause of this strange phe- 
nomenon of a people sincerely and earnestly re- 
ligious, and yet having no fixed Christian belief ? 
Ask them, and those who have reflected will an- 
swer, in the lines of the poet Schiller : 


‘What’s my Religion? None of all the sects 
Which thou hast named. And why not? 
From REuIGIon.” 


The prevailing beliefs have presented Religion 
in such a light that men of mature thought could 


CHOOSING THE WAY. 27 


not, without a feeling approaching to shame, and 
a certain sense of self-degradation, submit to their 
pretensions. 

If Christianity be presented to men in such a 
way as to leave but the one choice, either to become 
fanatics or to profess no religion, where is there one 
who possesses a spark of reason, or has a manly 
feeling in his breast, that would not rather stand 
aloof from all religious sects, and pay such worship 
to his Creator as accords with the dictates of 
Reason and the inward convictions of the soul ? 
Reliance on the rational convictions of our nature 
is the first of all duties. 

The time is gone by when men can easily be 
made to believe that that is Religion which leads 
its votaries to contradict the dictates of Reason, or 
trample down the convictions of conscience. Nor 
does it sound well in the ears of an enlightened 
people, to tell them that the first step to Religion 
is to abdicate that which distinguishes man from 
the brutes which perish. 

A large class of intellectual men share the 
conviction, that the only stable foundation for 
Religion is the human intelligence. They pro- 
claim it openly to the world, that ‘‘ Religion is 
yet to be settled on its fast foundations in the 
breast of man,” 


98 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


This is the great object to be aimed at in the 
present age. Would that those whom it concerns 
understood it! Never can that be God’s Religion 
which gainsays Reason’s dictates and shocks the 
feelings of our moral nature. 

The present generation of men, having receded 
from the common systems of Christian belief as 
unsatisfactory, have fallen back upon Human Na- 
ture. Human Nature alone can be taken for 
granted. ‘The Religion, therefore, that is to meet 
the wants of the age, and answer its demands, 
must take its starting point from man’s nature, 
It is, therefore, upon the essential and indestruc- 
tible elements of Human Nature that Religion, 
particularly in this country, has to raise the foun- 
dations of its temple. The sanctuary of Religion 
must be restored to the place where the God of 
nature placed it, in the human soul. 

The work of doubt, denial, destruction, is 
ended ; it awakens no enthusiasm. The cry for 
edification is heard abroad in the land, 

Wearied with fruitless search, disgusted with 
mere negation, freed from the awful nightmare of 
doubt, the time for action is at hand. The age 
demands a Religion which unites reverence for God 
with a profound respect for the divinely-gifted in- 
telligence and the heaven-born freedom of man. 


CHOOSING THE WAY. 29 


Say not that an inquiry after the true Religion 
is not called for. It is. The teachers followed 
by our Fathers are destitute of the truths which 
the age demands. It is the cry of Reason, of the 
Soul, of all earnest minds, of the people of our 
country. They demand a Religion which opens a 
future worthy of their youthful energies, which 
answers to their high aspirations, and elicits from 
their hearts deeds of generous and noble self- 
sacrifice. 

What else is the meaning of all the modern 
spiritualisms and evocations of departed spirits, 
except that the religious sentiment, finding in the 
common system of modern religious belief no satis- 
factory support or adequate answer to its demands, 
goes blindly groping about in its distress among 
the realms of the dead to discover something 
which will satisfy its deep, deathless, and irre- 
sistible yearnings ? 

We must therefore suffer the map portable 
yearnings of our religious nature, or find the Re- 
ligion which will afford them ample satisfaction. 

The question of Religion is not a question of 
opinion. The question of Religion is one of life 
‘and death. To attempt to be and live without 
Religion is a gross injustice to our Reason, a cruel 
mutilation of our nature, and an insult offered to 


30 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


God. To be without Religion is to be not a man, 
but a monster. Our people are famishing for it ; 
and we must have religion, the true Religion, or 
die,—die of despair or inanition. For Religion is 
man’s inmost being and existence. 

We may, however, be told that this inquiry 
after the true Religion is difficult? Difficult ! 
Well, suppose it is, what then? Are we not 
here to conquer difficulties ? For what purpose 
was the light of Reason bestowed on man if not 
to discover the Truth ? For what purpose was 
the strength of his will given, if not to employ it 
in search of Truth ? No! truth is not so difficult 
of discovery as some would have us believe. Truth 
is ever ready to show herself to the sincere, the 
earnest, and hastens to the arms of the ingenuous 
lover. 

Let us give ear to the cry of an “ Earnest 
Seeker.” 


“THE CONFESSIONS 


OF 


“AN EARNEST SEEKER,” 


Tan. 


ei Ki are conscious of an intense and painful 

void within our breast. How are we to be 
relieved of this? Relief there must be, for it is 
insupportable. The insensibility of death were 
preferable. Forgetfulness a boon. 


“ Forgetfulness— 
Of what,—of whom,—and why ? 
Of that which is within me; 
Read it there— 
Ye know it, and I cannot utter it.”’* 


““'The world may appear beautiful ; the ties 
of friendship, kindred, love, seem dear and sweet ; 


* Byron. 


32 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


life may appear full of hope and bright prospects ; 
Alas! what are all these joys to the soul, so long 
as deeper needs deprive us of their enjoyment ? 


“A different object do these eyes require ; 
My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine; 
And in my heart the imperfect joys expire.” * 


“¢ All sacrifices would be to us as steps to bliss, 
and renunciation enjoyment, so that we found 
what answers to our nobler necessities. A journey 
to the torrid zone, were we sure to meet it there, 
would be but a trip of pleasure.” Somewhere it 
must be ; if not, the heavens will reveal it. This 
confidence is stronger than death, 

“Thank God! we were left unfettered and 
unswayed in our belief, in our childhood and 
youth. We are in our full manhood, in possession 
of our reason and freedom. Happy is the man 
who is ready to receive the whole of God’s ever- 
lasting truth, and searches after it with all the 
energies of his being. 

“The possession of Truth, not the simple 
search of it, is the true end of Reason and the 
source of all true life. Whenever, therefore, the 
Truth is presented to the mind with rational and 
sufficient evidence, it matters not by whom, to 


* Gray. 


THE “SEEKER’S CONFESSIONS.” 33 


withhold one’s assent, is to reduce Reason to the 
ignominious servitude of passion, and to inflict 
upon the soul the most painful of deaths,—the 
death of inanition. | 

“The slave is noble, his chains brilliant orna- 
ments, he is free, in comparison with the man 
who enslaves his godlike Reason by his passions, 
shackles it by his prejudices, or lets it rust unused 
from slavish fears. 

“Reason affirms its own authority, and can 
admit of no other which does not support its 
claims, and coincide with its dictates; Of all 
forms of slavery, that of the soul is the most 
abject, degrading, and cruel. ‘The negro slave 
possesses his soul, but the man who yields up the 
authority of his Reason, abdicates his manhood, 
and renders his soul a chattel. 

‘“‘ Endowed with Reason, man has no right to 
surrender his judgment. Endowed with Free- 
Will, man has no right to yield up his liberty. 
Reason and Free-Will constitute man a respon- 
sible being, and he has no right to abdicate his 
independence. Judgment, Liberty, Independence, 
these are divine and inalienable gifts ; and man 
cannot renounce them if he would. 

“ As an intellectual being, man has the right 
to know the Truth. Asa moral being, man has 

2% 


34 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


the right to follow the Truth. Any authority 
that interferes with our exercise of these, violates 
the natural rights of man, and insults their Divine 
Author. 

“The assent of Reason to truth is not the 
subjection of Reason, but its sublimest assertion. 
The voluntary following of Truth is not a restric- 
tion of our Free-Will, but the only and the truest 
expression of its liberty. The acknowledgment 
and acceptance of Truth constitute man’s true 
Independence, Dignity and Glory. 

‘‘ Man cannot be thought of consistently with 
just and honorable ideas of his Creator, otherwise 
than as good, in possession of all his faculties, 
whose primal tendencies are in accordance with 
the great end of his being, 

“There is no earthly Dignity equal to that 
of Human Nature, for there is stamped upon it, 
in glowing characters, the perfect resemblance of 
its Divine Author. ) 

“Let us therefore be loyal to the dictates of 
Reason, knowing that they will lead us to our 
Archetype and Divine Original. 

“Let the light of Truth be our guide. Let 
Reason be our Authority. We fear not to-follow 
where they point the way. What contradicts 
Reason contradicts God. 


VI. 
“*Deligion.” 


66 W* go forth in earnestness and in hope, with 
the sacred torch of Reason in our hand, to 
seek, to find, and to accept true Religion, resolved 
at the same time to cast aside all creeds and sys- 
tems of belief which exact the surrender of our 
judgment, independence, or liberty. 
‘If we find a religion to tell us that the truth 
we see is not truth, but falsehood ; if we find a 
religion to tellus that the good we love is not 
good, but evil ; if we find a religion to tell us that 
our good deeds are not virtues, but vices ; we in 
indignation answer: ‘To the dogs with such a 
religion. We ask not its heaven ; nor fear its hell. 
Such a religion comes not down from heaven, but 
up from the bottomless pits below.’ 


36 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


“‘ A religion which gainsays the plain dictates 
of Reason, is hostile to our holiest affections, or 
mutilates our nature, is no religion, but a base im- 
position. It is treason against God and Human 
Nature to listen to its horrid and impious creed. 
No, rather die a heathen or infidel than submit to 
a religion which outrages God by making the 
creatures of his own likeness, abject, base, ac- 
cursed. 

“We say, with the voice and the united ener- 
gies of our soul, and the Author of our being: ‘ Let 
the religion perish from the face of the earth 
which invades the sacred boundaries that consti- 
tute man’s Reason, or which would diminish the 
dignity of Human Nature.’ 

‘“‘ Reason’s certitude is anterior to all other 
certitude, hence its authority is indisputable, and, 
in its own sphere, supreme. The denial of this is 
the undermining of the foundations of all knowl- 
edge of truth, and of all religious belief, and opens 
the way to the triumph of Atheism. The first 
step of the true Religion is to confirm the rightful 
authority of Reason, to call forth the full exercise 
of its powers, to elicit its free and undivided 
assent, and look to it for its confirmation, support, 
and defence. 

‘‘ A religion, therefore, that is not an imposi- 


THE “SEEKER’S CONFESSIONS.” 37 


tion, a fraud, cannot move a single step inde- 
pendently of the voluntary assent and suffrage of 
Reason. Its first duty is to afford rational and 
sufficient evidence of the doctrines which it teaches. 
Let it look to this, for the sake of its own honor, for 
a religion which interdicts the right exercise of 
Reason, or violates its laws, exposes itself, sooner 
or later, to the just indignation of all intelligent 
thinkers. 

‘* No truth or doctrine of Religion is really be- 
lieved and held without an act of the intelligence 
and will. These united constitute man’s rational 
nature. A religion unsupported by the inward 
witness and free assent of Reason to its truth, 1s no 
religion, but a delusion, an hypocrisy. For man, 
as a rational ‘being, cannot, if he would, embrace 
a religious belief which is contrary to his essential 
nature—Reason. 

‘“* As on one hand Religion is bound to attest 
with satisfactory evidence the divine origin of the 
truths which it proposes to our belief, so on the 
other hand, we are bound to accept the truths so 
presented. To believe is not less a function of 
Reason than to know, or to perform any other of 
its normal operations. ‘The refusal, therefore, of 
our belief to truths duly attested, 1s a violation of 
our allegiance to Reason, and if consistently carried 
out, would end in its entire overthrow. 


38 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


“Religion adds no new faculty to the soul. 
A sure mark of its divine origin is, that when 
fairly presented, it meets and welcomes all the 
honest demands of the intellectual and moral 
faculties of our nature, and in such a way as to 
produce an entire conviction of its truth. True 
Religion opens to our intellectual vision the great 
end of our existence, and so directs, strengthens, 
and excites our will and its energies that we reach 
it. : 

“It should not be forgotten that the destiny 
of the soul and body is one and indivisible. For 
man is soul and body, inseparably united in one 
person. The body, therefore, has a religious pur- 
pose. ‘ Nothing is holier than that high form, 
A religion which is of divine origin must be adapt- 
ed, in its doctrines and worship, to the whole of 
man’s nature. 

‘‘There is no use of disguising the fact, our 
religious needs are the deepest. There is no peace 
until they are satisfied and contented. The at- 
tempt to stifle them is vain. If their cry be 
drowned by the noise of the world, they do not 
cease to exist. In some unexpected moment they 
will break forth with redoubled energy. They 
must be answered. And unless they be satisfac- 
torily answered, they will rise up at the last hour 


THE “SEEKER’S CONFESSIONS.” 39 


of life, and, with irresistible force, seize upon the 
mind, and strike terror into the soul. 

“It is a necessity, therefore, to find a religion 
coinciding with the dictates of Reason, and com- 
mensurate with the wants of our whole nature, or 
else to wait for its revelation. 

‘““ Tf we find no such religion, and God deigns 
not to reveal it, then on our tomb shall be written, 
‘ Here lies one who asked with sincerity for truth, 
and it was not given. He knocked earnestly at 
the door of truth, and it was not opened. He 
sought faithfully after truth, and he found nothing 


VIL. 


“Church.” 


“PD ELIGION is a question between God and 

the Soul. No human authority, therefore, 
has any right to enter its sacred sphere. The 
attempt is sacrilegious. 

‘“‘ Every man was made by his Creator to do 
his own thinking. What right then has one man, 
or a body of men, to dictate their belief, or make 
their private convictions, or sentiments, binding 
upon others ? 

“There is no degradation so abject, as the 
submission of the eternal interests of the soul to 
the private authority or dictation of any man, or 
body of men, whatever may be their titles. Every 
right sentiment in our breast rises up in abhorrence 
against it. 


THE “SEEKER’S CONFESSIONS.” 41 


“A Church which is not of divine origin, and 
claims assent to its teachings, or obedience to 
its precepts, on its own authority, is an insult to 
our understandings, and deserves the ridicule of 
all men who have the capacity to put two ideas 
together. 

‘‘A Church that claims a divine origin, in 
order to be consistent must also claim to be un- 
erring ; for the idea of teaching error in the name 
of the Divinity, is blasphemous. 

“A Church, if it deserves that title, must 
yield us assistance, and not we the Church. The 
Church that needs our assistance, we despise. 
Only the Church which has help from above for 
mankind, and is conscious of it, is a divine insti- 
tution. 

“A Church that has its origin in heaven, is 
an organ of divine inspiration and life to humanity. 
For Religion is not only a system of divinely 
given truths, but also the organ of a divine life. 
Life, and its transmission, 1s inconceivable, inde- 
pendent of an organism. The office of the Church, 
therefore, is not only to teach divine truths, but 
also to enable men to actualize them. 

“Tf entrance into the Church is not a step 
to a higher and holier life, the source of a larger 
and more perfect freedom, her claims do not merit 


42 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


a moment’s consideration. Away with the Church 
that reveals not a loftier manhood, and enables 
men to attain it. 

“The object of the Church authority is not to 
lay restraints on man’s activity, but to direct it 
aright ; not to make him a slave, but to establish 
his independence ; the object of Church authority 
is to develop man’s individuality, consecrate and 
defend his rights, and elevate his existence to the 
plane of his divine destiny. 

“Divine Religion appeals to man’s holiest 
instincts, and inspires the soul with a sublime 
enthusiasm. A Church without martyrs is not 
on equality with the institution of the family or 
state; for they are not wanting in heroes. A 
Church that ceases to produce martyrs is dead. 

“‘ Hearts are aching to be devoted to the down- 
trodden and suffering of the race. Breasts are 
elated with heroic impulses to do something in the 
noble cause of Truth and God ; and shall all these 
aspirations and sentiments which do honor to our 
nature, be wasted, misspent, or die out for want 
of sanction and right direction ? Who can give 
this sanction? Who can give this direction ? 
No one but God’s Church upon earth. This is 
her divine mission. | 

“In concert with the voice of all those who 


THE SEEKER’S CONFESSIONS.” 43 


are conscious of their humanity, we demand a 
visible and divine authority to unite and direct 
the aspirations and energies of individuals and 
nations to great enterprises for the common wel- 
fare of men upon earth, and for eternity. 

“If the Religion we are in search of does not 
exist, and we remain in darkness, we shall be 
found standing upright, looking heavenward, our 
Reason unshackled, in all the dignity and energy 
of our native manhood. 


“¢ Better roam for aye, than rest 
Under the impious shadow of a roof unblest.’” * 


* De Vere. 


VIII. 


The Search. 


“ Arise, good youth! 
I know thine inmost bosom, and I feel 
A very brother’s yearning for thee steal 
Into mine own: for why? Thou openest 
The prison-gates that have so long oppressed 
My weary watchings.” KEAtTs. 


HOUGHTS like the preceding are largely 

shared by the living men of our time. Only 
genuine Religion can answer their high but just 
and searching demands. A false religion must not 
venture to face them. Its first words would be 
the sentence of its own condemnation. Never 
had true Religion so glorious a field for its con- 
quest, never had a false religion so much to dread. 

Hitherto the conquests of Religion were 
among pagans, idolaters, and savages. Peoples 


THE SEARCH. 45 


who held a false religion, and subject to almost 
unconquerable prejudices and inveterate super-. 
stitions. Here we have men enlightened by 
Reason, free for the most part from false religions, 
and open to the convictions of Truth. What a 
noble prospect for the triumph of true Religion ! 
What a beautiful career for the champions of that 
Religion which has its origin in heaven! ‘True 
Religion has nothing to dread from the right use of 
Reason ; it demands free inquiry, and courts the 
strictest scrutiny, for the foundations on which 
true Religion stands are eternal. 

In other places, infidelity, skepticism, preju- 
dice, is rife. and stalks over the land ; an evident 
determination to reject all religion in spite of the 
voice of Reason and the cries of our religious na- 
ture. We have little of that among us. That 
little is of foreign importation. 

Our civilization is young, fresh, and in the 
vigor of its manhood. New elements are at work 
init. We cannot repeat the past if we would. 
The new world promises a new civilization. And 
in this unfettered civilization, true Religion will 
find a reception it has in vain looked for elsewhere, 
and a development of unprecedented glory. For 
Religion is never so attractive and beautiful as 
when connected with intelligence and free convic- 
tion. 


46 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE, 


Our youthful people are ready to offer their 
-hearts to the embraces of the Religion of heaven, 
as the soil of our country presents its virginal 
bosom to our countrymen for its cultivation. 

This moment is a crisis, the great crisis of our 
history. For no people ever became great without 
religion. A religion, too, superior to themselves. 
A religion which was to them the source of their 
highest and purest inspiration. A religion which, 
in its main elements at least, was of divine origin. 
A religion which furnished ideals to its poets and 
artists, and enlightened the minds and nerved the 
arms of its sages and heroes to great enterprises. 
It is the very nature and essence of Religion to 
raise men, peoples and nations, above the common 
level of life, to break through its ordinary bounds, 
and express itself in a thousand ways, in poetry, 
painting, music, sculpture, and in every other form 
of ideal expression. The splendid monuments of 
the genius and greatness of by-gone ages are the 
monuments inspired by their religion. 

Our destiny as a nation hangs on this moment. 
For no nation, as no individual, becomes fully 
conscious of its capacities, discovers its divine 
destination, until it is wholly under the influence 
of religious inspiration. No people becomes pro- 
perly a nation, acts as one man, unfolds its highest 


THE SEARCH. r Ae 


capabilities, displays its true genius and utmost 
strength, until it becomes not only politically and 
socially, but religiously, of one mind and heart. 
Religion ever was and for ever must be the highest 
source of inspiration, and the most powerful engine 
of progress in every department of human activity. 
Religion strikes the deepest roots into the human 
heart, inspires with divine light man’s intelligence, 
and gives to his will a superabundant strength and 
the noblest kind of heroism. The zenith of glory 
of every nation is the period of the highest degree 
of its religious culture and development. 

The whole character of our future depends on 
the direction of our present step. For in propor- 
tion to the intenseness of the unity of a people in 
a common religious belief, so will be their energy. 
In proportion to the universality of the principles 
of their religious belief will be the grandeur of 
their development. In proportion to the sub- 
limity, purity, and truth of their religious belief, 
will be the stability and splendor of their civiliza- 
tion. Religion—true, genuine Religion alone, 
makes a people a nation, powerful, great, glorious, 
and like herself, eternal. The character of a na- 
tion’s destiny is taken from the nature of its 
religion. 

Our people begin to feel the necessity of a 


48 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


-religion adequate to their wants, adapted to their 
genius, and capable of guiding them to their 
divine destination. A religion coextensive with 
our vast extent of territory, in harmony with the 
spirit of our free institutions, embracing in one 
brotherhood the entire human race, and drawing 
its authority from the bosom of God. 

The American people feel the need of such a 
religion, the need of its divine sanction, and its 
blessings and guidance. 

Never in the history of man has there been 
presented a spectacle of greater interest than the 
new page which our people are at this moment 
unfolding before the world’s expectation. 

The promises of the past, the hopes of the pre- 
sent, the interests of the future, are bound up and 
vitally connected with our efforts and successes. 

America is the country of the Future. The 
living God is above us, and the blessings of heaven 
are with us. Let us then go forward, trusting that 
our convictions will bring us to the realities which 
they foreshadow. 


IX 


Heathen Abilosophy. 


“ Philosophy is the endeavor to solve the formidable problems which tor- 
ment the soul. The philosophical sentiment is the craving to pursue these 
solutions with the torch of Reason and Science.” 

INTROD. TO JOUFFRAY; BY GEORGE RIPLEY. 


\ HERE shall we go to find the religion of 

heaven ? Is it among the ancients we shall 
find it? Shall we find in the writings of the 
philosophers and sages of Greece and Rome com- 
plete and satisfactory answers to the problems 
which torment the soul? Weare told so. But 
we fear, not. By-gone ages listened to their so- 
lutions, and found them to be insufficient for 
Reason, and unsatisfactory to the heart. The 
sages and philosophers of the ancients were listened 
to, not by men hostile to their religions, or preju- 


3 


50 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


diced, but by men of genius, able to comprehend 
and appreciate their teachings. They were even 
their own cherished disciples. 

Lucian tells us, in his “ Dialogues of the Dead :” 
*¢ Jn the state of ignorance and perplexity in which 
I was concerning the origin of the world, I thought 
that I could do no better than have recourse to the 
philosophers. Persuaded that they were the de- 
positaries of all truths, and that they would dispel 
all my doubts, I addressed myself to those ot 
them whom I thought the more clever. I judged 
their merit by the gravity of their exterior, the 
paleness of their countenances and the length ot 
their beards ; unerring signs, as I thought, of the 
depth and the subtlety of their knowledge. I 
placed myself in their hands; and after having 
agreed upon the price, which was not a trifle, I 
desired at first to be instructed regarding all that 
they say happens in heaven, and to know how they 
would go to work to explain the order we meet 
everywhere in the universe. What was my aston- 
ishment, when all my learned masters, far from 
dissipating my first uncertitude, plunged me into 
a blindness a thousand times more obscure! I 
had my ears every day stunned with their great 
words of principles, ends, atoms, void, matter, 
form. What was most insufferable for me, was 


HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY. 51 


that each of them taught me precisely the contrary 
to what the other said, exacted that I should con- 
fide in him alone, and pretended that his system 
was alone the right one and good.” 

Such was the result of the efforts of Lucian to 
find among the philosophers of his time the an- 
swers to the formidable questions which torment 
Reason. 

The philosopher Justin was a devout student 
of Plato’s writings and disciple of his doctrines. 
Did he find them satisfactory? By no means. 
In regard to the prince of philosophers, he says : 
“YT abandon Plato, not that his doctrine is con- 
trary to the truth, but because it is insufficient and 
fragmentary. ‘The same judgment I pass on the 
disciples of Zeno, and your poets and historians.” 
Origen, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Augus- 
tine and other great minds, pass the same judg- 
ment on the results of the endeavors of the sages 
and philosophers of the Grecian states, and of those 
of the Roman empire. They sought ardently, they 
devoted their time and best energies of their minds, 
to find the solutions to the dark enigmas of life in 
the schools and writings of the various philosophies, 
and found them wanting. : 


52 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


‘None 
Could whisper to them a saving spell. 
That might the house of death illume ; or raise 
Even in life the soul to hope and peace, 
Or look for ultimate union with the light.” * 


That the solutions of the ancient philosophers 
were inadequate to the demands of Reason, is an 
historical fact. A sufficient evidence of the truth 
of this is their having passed into oblivion. ‘Thus 
a palpable proof of the insufficiency of the ancient 
philosophical schools is found in their inability to 
establish themselves as permanent institutions of 
society. They could not stand the test of the 
strict scrutiny of enlightened Reason. Men may 
be duped, for their lives are short ; not so with 
humanity, it lives for ages. Hence what is not 
commensurate with all the wants of man’s nature, 
can never become universal either in time or space. 

If this statement be not satisfactory, we will 
ourselves inquire of the schools of ancient philos- 
ophy an answer to one of the great questions of 
Reason. The greatest question which Reason 
can ask is; What is the nature of God? Upon 
the character of the solution given to this question 
all religious beliefs, all religious worships, all moral 
actions depend. What, then, is the voice of the 


* Bailey, 


HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY. 53 


ancients concerning the existence and nature of 
God ? 

Strange to say, we are stopped at the very 
threshold of our inquiry with the doubt, whether 
the ancient philosophers taught consistently the 
existence of the one true God! Cicero, who was 
conversant with the writings of the ancient philos- 
ophers and doctrines of their schools, has given a 
pretty complete summary of their opinions on this 
point, in his book entitled ‘‘ Concerning the Na- 
ture of the Gods.” 

“Thales,” he tells us, “‘ believed water to be 
the source of all things. Anaximander’s opinion 
was, that the gods were born at different intervals, 
and died after a great length of time. Anaximenes 
taught that the air was God. Anaxagoras affirmed 
that all things were contrived by an infinite mind. 
Alemas of Croton attributed a divinity to the sun, 
the moon, and the stars. Pythagoras supposed 
the Deity to be one soul, mixing with and per- 
vading all nature. Zenophanes would have all the 
parts of the universe to be infinite, and possessed 
of mind, and called that God. Pemandes formed 
an orb of heat like a crown, and this he named 
God. Protagoras acknowledged that he did not 
know whether there were, or were not gods, or what 
they were. Democritus denies that there is any 


54 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


thing eternal. Plato, in his Timeeus, denies the 
propriety of asserting a Father of the world, and in 
his books of Laws, he says, one ought not to make 
any inquiry concerning it. He likewise asserts, in 
both these books, that the world, the heavens, the 
stars, the earth, the mind, and men, are God. 
Plato’s disciples made God a round figure, because 
their master said this was the most beautiful. 
Xenophon, while he disputes the lawfulness of in- 
quiring into the form of the Deity, asserts the sun, 
the moon, and the mind to be deities. He affirms 
the existence of one only God, and denies it in the 
same breath by declaring there are many. Aris- 
totle does not differ from his master, Plato ; one 
while he attributes all divinity to the mind ; an- 
other while he asserts the world to be God. Soon 
after he makes some other essence preside over the 
world ; then he asserts the heat of the elements is 
God. Zenocrates, his fellow-pupil, says, that the 
number of gods is eight, whom he locates in the 
stars and planets. Heraclides, of the same school 
of Plato, thinks the world is the Deity ; at other 
times the mind ; then the wandering stars. The- 
ophrastus is equally unsteady ; now it is mind that 
is God, then the firmament, then again the stars 
and celestial signs. Zeno thinks the laws of na- 
ture to be God ; by and by he attributes the same 


HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY. 55 


power to the stars, the years, the months and 
seasons. Aristo, Zeno’s disciple, is altogether in 
doubt whether the Deity is an animated being or 
not. Cleanthes, another disciple of the same 
master, one while says the world is God ; at other 
times he bestows divinity on the mind and the 
spirit of universal nature; then he asserts it is 
neither ; again, the stars are the divinity; and 
lastly, nothing is more divine than Reason.” 

Arrived at this stage of his investigations, 
‘seized as it were with bewilderment, amidst these 
absurd and conflicting opinions, Cicero gives ex- 
pression to the voice of the common sentiment of 
mankind, when he exclaims, “‘ Alas, that this God 
whom we know by our Reason, and of whom each 
one bears traces in his breast, by the labors of 
these men is wholly obliterated from the mind !” 

And what more striking proof can be asked, 
than the fact that millions of individuals of both 
sexes, of every age and rank, were put to the most 
cruel tortures and death by the edicts of heathen 
Emperors, many of whom professed philosophy, 
and for what? Why, for no other reason than 
that they would not pay divine honors to men and 
demons, to stocks and stones, and even creeping 
things! For what other crime was Socrates put 
to death, than venturing to insinuate in the mind 
of men the unity of God ? 


56 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


As regards the opinions of ancient philosophers 
concerning the soul, they were no less absurd and 
contradictory than those given above “on the 
Nature of the Gods.” The same Cicero concludes 
a resumé of their opinions in his Tusculan Ques- 
tions as follows: “In this matter the philosophers 
leave us in complete incertitude ; and it is a great 
question which of them is true.” 

Philosophy by her Platos, Aristotles, Zenos, 
was in the greatest incertitude, and taught the 
most absurd inconsistencies on these great prob- 
lems which torment our intelligence. Nor were 
the ancient philosophers more successful in regard 
to the right rules of moral action. Marcus Varro 
counts up no less than two hundred and eighty- 
eight different opinions, which might be easily 
gathered from the doctrines of the philosophers 
concerning the relations of man with God. 

Far be it from us to disparage, or to look down 
with contempt on the sincere efforts and earnest 
search for truth, displayed by several of the ancient 
sages and philosophers. No one who has had it 
for his task to find the truth in the midst of error, 
single and unaided, will be disposed to despise the 
generous efforts of others who had to fight the 
same battle, under less favorable circumstances, 

But surely no one will at this day impose upon 


HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY. 57 


men the task of ‘finding the solutions of the dark 
enigmas of life, or of fixing the true religion and 
determining the worship agreeable to the Deity, 
from the writings, or the schools, of philosophers 
of the ancient world, of whom 


“ The best 
Were erring guides ; the worst were all but all. 
The world was one enigma ; life appeared 
A bridge of groans across a stream of tears.” * 


* Bailey. 


Bf 


X. 


German Philosophy, 


“Sweet milk philosophy!” 
SHAKESPEARE, 


F the ancient philosophers were unable to give 
satisfactory answers to the demands of Reason, 
- it may have been because this task was left to 
some after age and people to accomplish. What 
age can boast of greater enlightenment than the 
Nineteenth Century ? Which of the nations on 
the earth is superior in philosophical genius to the 
people of Germany? Every age has its work, 
every people its mission ; where can we look with 
brighter hopes for success to our search, than 
among these bold adventurers on the broad ocean 
of thought ? 

Kind reader, we beg, be not startled at the 


GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 59 


idea of making a philosophical tour through the 
dry, dreary, barbarous field of speculation of the 
profound thinkers of Germany. Be assured that 
it is far from our intention to inflict a long dis- 
sertation on their discoveries and relative merits. 
Patience ! we shall be brief, unbiased, and intel- 
ligible. 

Emmanuel Kant is entitled, if any one, to the 
name of the Father of the philosophy of modern 
Germany. 

What is the true nature of Reason, and how 
is Reason to be placed upon that road by which 
we can march on a scientific basis in all philo- 
sophical speculations and researches after know- 
ledge ? This was the problem that Emmanuel 
Kant endeavored to solve in his celebrated work 
entitled ‘‘ Critic of Pure Reason.” 

We shall not fatigue our readers with follow- 
ing the philosopher of Koénigsberg through his in 
many respects masterly examination of the powers 
of Reason. The results of his labors and philo- 
sophical genius will suffice us. 

Accordingly Kant tells us :—‘“* All the powers 
of Reason in pure philosophy are, in fact, directed 
to the three great problems: The existence of 
God: The Immortality of the Soul: The Free- 
dom of the Will.’ Now, what is the value of 


60 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


Reason in regard to the solution of these three 
great questions which never cease to occupy its 
powers and torment it unless rightly answered ? 
“What can I know?” asks boldly this great 
German thinker, at the close of his long, laborious, 
and severe critic of Reason’s powers. The answer 
to this question, gives the direction to all the 
philosophical investigations of the then future 
German mind. Little did Kant think that the 
peace and happiness of thousands, and even mil- 
lions, depended on the solution he should give to 
this question: ‘‘ What can I know?” ‘Js 
therea God ?” “AmJT immortal?” ‘“ Are we 
free ?”’ Every thing hangs upon the character 
of the answers given to these great questions ; 
society, the state, man’s past, present, and future. 
Behold the answer of the Father of modern Ger- 
man transcendental philosophy to the gravest, 
most important, and vital qnestion that ever was 
asked by man: ‘‘ What canI know?” From 
the great ends to which all these efforts of pure 
Reason were in fact directed, such is his language : 
“We remain just as far removed as if we had 
consulted our ease, and declined the task at the 
outset.” * : 
According then to the Master Genius of German 


* Critic of Reason, p. 483—Bohti’s edition 


GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 61 


‘thought, Philosophy is not able to give to man 
satisfactory solutions to the great questions which 
agitate Reason. These great and momentous 
questions, these questions of life and death to man, 
are mere problems, for and against which the 
arguments are of equal force and value ; hence 
the Existence of God, the Immortality of the Soul, 
the Freedom of the Will, stand on the basis of 
being mere plausible hypotheses. In other words, 
Kant’s answer to the question, “ What can I 
know?” reduced to simple words, is: I can know 
nothing! Is not this sheer skepticism? Thus 
Reason is a mocking gift, and man is doomed to 
have his life’s energies tormented and devoured by 
uncertainty and doubt, like the vultures which 
devoured the vitals of the rock-bound Prometheus. 

True to his philosophical character, Kant died 
a consistent philosopher. Being asked a few days 
before his death by his friend Hasse, ‘“‘ what he 
hoped for in the future life?” he replied: ‘ On 
that point I have no fixed opinions.” At another 
time he said, ‘‘ I have no notion of a future state.” 

Fichté, the distinguished disciple of Kant, 
pushed the doctrines of his master to their logical 
consequences. What Kant pronounced in doubt, 
and with hesitating lips, Fichté affirms with assu- 
rance and with the tone of sincerity. According 


62. THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


to Kant, we cannot aflirm from the image within 
to what is without ; so, according to Fichté, as it 
is only the image within we see, we cannot logically 
conclude that any thing without exists at all, 
Philosophy defined in the spirit of Fichté would 
be: The dialogue of a man with his own shadow. 
And God is nothing else than man’s intuition of 
his own nature considered as an independent ex- 
istence. In keeping with his transcendental 
philosophy, Fichté, at the close of one of his 
celebrated lectures at Berlin, announced the sub- 
ject of the subsequent evening as follows: ‘“ To- 
morrow evening, gentlemen, I will construct God.” 

Fichté, for his philosophical ability, was called 
to fill the chair of Philosophy at the celebrated 
University of Jena ; but sacrificed his position by 
defending the proposition that ‘‘ God is to be | 
thought as an order of events, to think of God as 
a substance, or with a personality, is to fall into 
contradictions and absurdities.” Is not this Athe- 
ism ? 

It is said that Fichté before his death adopted 
opinions more consonant with the universal con- 
victions of man’s religious nature. Tor his soul’s 
sake it would be an unpleasant reflection to think 
otherwise. 

Schelling is the next great representative of 


GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 63 


German philosophy. To give an adequate idea 
of Schelling’s system or systems, would be an end- 
less task. For so many have been the changes of 
Schelling that it has been said, that the best refu- 
tation of his philosophy would be an exact cata- 
logue of his works. ‘To escape, however, such a 
humiliation while living, he declared it to be his 
intention to give his last word on philosophy only 
at the end of his life. To increase our Tantalus- 
like agony, this philosopher lives to a ripe old age, 
and then leaves us hopelessly in the dark. 

George Hegel is the next great German 
philosophical thinker. The fundamental formula 
of philosophy, according to this philosopher, is 
the Identity of contradiction—“‘ Seyn und Nicht 
Seyn,” being and not being, is one and_ precisely 
the same thing. His first axiom of philosophy is : 
Das Seyn ist Das Nichts. The first step towards 
becoming a philosopher, according to George 
Hegel, is to throw overboard common sense, and 
the disordeiing of one’s reason. 

“God,” according to this profound German 
thinker, “ arrives in man to the most perfect con- 
sciousness of his being ; for the Absolute consists 
in the identity of being and knowledge ; to think, 
therefore, is to be God. Hence, without man and 


64 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


the world, God was not complete, nor was he yet 
God.” * Is not this pantheism ? 

Let us listen to the confession of one of his 
celebrated disciples: ‘‘ I accepted,” says Heine 
the poet, “ without examination, the synthesis of 
Hegelian philosophy, the logical consequences of 
which tickled my vanity. I was young and proud 
—my pride was not moderately flattered with the 
idea that I was a god. I never would believe that 
God had become man ; I taxed with superstition 
this sublime dogma, and later I believed Hegel at 
his word when I heard him affirm that man was 
God.” 

Speaking of his labors to bring out Hegel’s 
philosophy, in a French translation he says: “I 
was occupied with this task during two years, and 
I was successful, by force of painful efforts, to 
master this rebel matter and to give a form as 
clear as possible to the most cloudy thoughts of 
this philosopher ; but when my work was ended, 
I was seized at its aspect with a shivering, and it 
seemed to me that the MSS. looked on me with 
a strange, mocking, contemptuous eye. The 
Translator and his work accorded no longer to- 
gether. It was at this period that an aversion for 
atheism seized hold of my soul; and as I was 


* Religions Philesophie. 


GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 65 


forced to avow that my impiety had found its 
source and its principal support in the philosophy 
of Hegel, it began to weigh on me . ... I saw that 
the publication of such a work could not be salu- 
tary either to the public or the Translator ; and 
one day when the fire sparkled gaily on my hearth, 
I threw my MSS. into the flames, as formerly my 
friend Kitzler did on a like occasion. Then when 
these leaves, the fruit of so much labor, disap- 
peared in the flames, I heard in the chimney a 
hissing sound lke the laugh of a fiend. Oh! 
could I but annihilate in the same manner all 
that I have ever ear on German philoso- 
phy !”* 

Such were the teachings, logical conclusions, 
and practical effects of the doctrines of the too 
famous German thinker, Mr. George Hegel, whose 
philosophy one might define: a metaphysical 
discourse on the text, “‘ You shall be as Gods,” 
which was promulgated by a very suspicious per- 
sonage some six thousand years ago. 

Hegel had other disciples :—Strauss, Bruno 
Bauer, Feuerbach. These were the more ardent in 
following the footsteps of their master. ‘‘ The 
most consequent of the terrible children of our 
modern philosophy,” says the same Heine, ‘“‘ the 


* Les ayeux d’un poet. Revue des Deux Mondes. 1854. 


66 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


modern Corypheus, is one who bears really the 
name of lake of fire (Feuerbach), he proclaims, in 
concert with his friends, the most radical atheism 
as the last word of our metaphysics. With a 
bacchanalan frenzy, these impious zealots tear 
the blue veil from the heavens of Germany, and 
cry out: Look, all the divinities have fled, and 
there resides on high only an old woman with iron 
hands and a desolated heart,—Necessity !” * 

Let us listen for a moment to some of the 
proclamations of this philosopher of young Ger- 
many. 

“There is no other essence,” so says Lewis 
Feuerbach, ‘“ which man can think of, dream of, 
imagine, feel, believe in, wish for, love and adore 
as the Absolute, than the essence of human na- 
ture itself” f ‘“‘ Man is his own God.” t ‘“ This 
is the great practical principle—this is the axis 
on which revolves the history of the world.’ § 
The revelation of God is nothing else than the 
revelation, the self-unfolding, of human nature. || 
“‘ Religion is a dream, in which our own concep- 
tions and emotions appear to us as separate exist- 
ences, beings out of ourselves.” 4 

Such are the logical consequences of the prin- 


* Les aveux d’un poet. Revue des Deux Mondes. 1854, 
+ Essence of Christianity. + Ibid. Homo homini deus est. 
§ Ibid. | Ibid. q Ibid. 


GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 67 


ciples of the great philosophical movement of 
Germany. And what is worthy of remark, and 
curious too, is that each of these philosophers in 
his enthusiasm professed to have discovered the 
philosophy of the Absolute, and therefore promised 
for himself and his writings an undying fame. 
Some went so far as to proclaim themselves not 
only the Apostles of truth, but its Messiah, the 
Eternal... Thus Kant, so the Kantians in all 
sincerity believed, had settled all the questions 
of Reason on a firm basis, and his philosophy was 
to have a reign without end. Then Fichté rose 
and gave his master’s philosophy such a hearty 
Teutonic blow that it failed to keep upright and 
fell. Reinhold planked himself between the two. 
Schelling came and changed and changed, and, 
changing, left the scene. Hegel came, and God 
only knows the divisions of his disciples into right 
and left, extreme right and extreme left, forwards 
and backwards, upwards and downwards, until 
old chaos came again, and by right reigns supreme 
over the brood of deep thinkers of the German 
philosophical world. 


XI. 


Hrench Philosophy. 


“Philosophy is the last enfranchisement of Reason; the intelligence and 
explication of all things; the source of a superior and an unalterable peace.” 
Victor Cousin. 


HEAVING the mystic Germans brooding over 
their profound speculations and lifeless ab- 
stractions, in their primeval forests, we will turn 
our attention to the practical and vivacious think- 
ers of sunny France. 

The first who strikes our attention among 
modern French thinkers, is M. Victor Cousin, with 
his school of Eclectics. What promises are held 
out here in the shape of philosophy? Victor 
Cousin does not hesitate to picture for us the 
brightest and most cheering prospects. Like his 
German predecessors and cotemporaries, he sets 
out with the ambition to “‘ construct a philosophy 


FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 69 


superior to all systems—philosophy in itself—and 
consequently everlasting.” * 

In addressing the young men of France, he 
proclaims that ‘‘ philosophy is the last victory of 
thought over every strange form and element ; it 
is the highest degree of liberty of intelligence ;— 
it is the last enfranchisement and the last pro- 
gress of thought. It is the light of all lights, the 
authority of authorities. It is true that, in place 
of forming a party in the human race, it elim- 
inates all parties. Young men, arrived at the 
close of your previous studies, you will find in 
philosophy, with the intelligence and explication 
of all things, a superior and unalterable peace.” F 

We breathe freer, our hopes revive, and we are 
prompted to exclaim: At length we have found 
the man who will give us satisfactory explanations 
of the formidable problems of Reason, and the in- 
telligence of the dark enigmas of life. Let us 
listen with profound respect and our whole atten- 
tion, as is due to so great a philosopher. To begin 
with the beginning. What does he say of God ? 

“My God,” he replies, “‘is the God of con- 
sciousness, who is at the same time God—Nature 
—Humanity... If God be not all, He is noth- 


* Preface to Tenneman’s Hist. of Philos. 
+ Introd. Hist. de la Philos. 


70 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


ing... It is in the human consciousness that 
God appears to himself.” . . “‘ Creation is not pos- 
sible ; it is necessary. ... God cannot but create ; 
and in creating the universe he does not draw it 
from nothingness, but from Himself.” * 

We are greatly mistaken if there be any real 
difference between the God of Spinoza, George 
Hegel, and Schelling, and the God of M. Victor 
Cousin. ‘‘ And such a being is not the God of 
the human race. He is not a God distinct from 
the world. Now the negation of a God distinct 
from the world has a well-known name in every 
language, as well as philosophy.” The only differ- 
ence we are able to discover between the God of 
the former from the latter is, that one clothes him 
with a German and the other with a French cos- 
tume. 

As regards the soul, this French philosopher 
has the hardihood to tell us ‘‘ that its immortality 
is a sublime probability, which perhaps eludes the 
rigor of a demonstration.” 

In view of these facts, we are surprised how 
one of his able American translators could hold -the 
following language in his Introductory to Cousin’s 
Philosophical Miscellanies: ‘“‘ Every primitive be- 
hef of humanity is invested, in his eyes, with a 


* Cousin’s Hist, Philos. 


FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 71 


character of peculiar, I may say, indeed, of awful 
sanctity.” .. ‘And that the philosophy of Cou- 
sin exhibits to the. speculative inquirer, in the 
rigorous forms of science, the reality of our instinc- 
tive faith in God, in Virtue, in the Human Soul, 
in the Beauty of Holiness, and in the Immortality 
of Man. Such a philosophy,” he contends, “I 
cannot but believe will ultimately find a cherished 
abode in the youthful affections of this nation, in 
whose history, from the beginning, the love of 
freedom, the love of philosophical inquiry, and 
the love of Religion, have been combined in a 
thrice holy bond.” 

Happily for us is it, that this belief has not 
been fulfilled ; for, take from M. Victor Cousin his 
brilliant style and French enthusiasm, and you take 
away all that distinguishes his philosophy from the 
German Pantheism. This is not to be wondered 
at, when he delights in acknowledging that ‘‘ he 
borrowed much from Hegel and Schelling, and 
felt honored publicly to call them his masters and 
friends, and the leaders of the philosophy of. the 
age.” * 

Theodore Jouffray, Cousin’s most distinguish- 
ed disciple, less cautious than his master, avows 
frankly that the question of the Soul’s Immortal- 


* Frag. Philos. 


72 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


ity “is premature, ... and until now nothing 
completely demonstrative has been produced in its 
favor... and that the opinion which attributes 
the facts of consciousness to a principle distinct 
from all corporeal organs, may be considered till 
now as an hypothesis.” * 

But Jouffray will let us farther into the secrets 
of the teaching, and the destructive effects, of the 
school of Hclectics and their master. Let us 
listen to some of the avowals made but shortly 
before his death, and mutilated by M. Victor 
Cousin before being given to the public. In speak- 
ing of the time of his youth he says: ‘ As to the 
questions which alone merit the attention of man, 
the religion of my fathers gave me the answers ; 
I believed, and, thanks to this belief, the life of 
the present was clear, and beyond it I saw the 
future which was to follow it, unroll itself without 
a cloud. Tranquil about the path which I had to 
follow in this world ; tranquil as regards the end 
to which it must lead me in the other, compre- 
hending life in both its phases, and death that 
unites them ; comprehending myself; knowing 
the designs of God in my regard, and loving him 
for the goodness of his designs, I was happy with 
that happiness which flows from a lively and cer- 


* Esquisse de Philos, Morale. 


FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 73 


tain faith, and a doctrine which resolves all the 
grand questions which can interest man.” 

No longer possessing the light of this faith, 
unable to suffer the incertitude which preyed upon 
his mind as regards the enigmas of man’s destiny, 
“I resolved,” he says, ‘‘ to consecrate all the time 
which might be necessary, and my whole life if it 
were required, to their research. It was in this 
way that I found myself led to philosophy, which, 
it seemed to me, could be nothing else than this 
research itself.” 

Jouffray now enters I’Hicole Normale, at the 
head of which was M. Victor Cousin, teaching his 
philosophy with great eclat to the youth of France. 
‘“* What did I find there ?” asks Jouffray. ‘ All 
the disputes which had animated the slumbering 
echoes of the Faculty, and which agitated the 
heads of my companions in study, had for their 
object, their only object,. . . the question of the 
origin of ideas. This was all, ... and in the 
helplessness in which I then was, I could not 
recover my astonishment that they should be oc- 
cupied with the origin of ideas with so great an 
ardor, that it could be said that in this all phi- 
losophy was included, leaving aside man, God, 
the world, the relations which unite them, the 
enigmas of the past and the mysteries of the future, 

4 


74 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


and so many gigantic problems concerning which 
it was not dissimulated that they were skeptical. 

‘¢ All philosophy was in a pit where there was 
no air, and where my soul, recently exiled from 
Christianity, was smothered.” 

Behold the realization of that promise to the 
young men of France, “ of finding in philosophy, 
with the intelligence and explication of all things, 
_a@ superior and an unalterable peace !” 

But the history of modern philosophy in 
France runs parallel with that of its parent source 
in Germany. Philosophy in Germany did not 
stop with Kant, Fichté, Hegel ; it found its last 
expression in Strauss, Bauer, Feuerbach; in 
France Leroux, Sand, and Proudhon, are its latest 
offspring. 

Leroux partakes of the positiveness of the 
later school of Germans, and declares, ‘‘ No, the 
soul is not distinct from the body. The earth 
is not outside of Heaven . . . Seize heaven in the 
present life.” Such are the doctrines of the great 
Humanitarian, Pierre Leroux. . 

But the French Feuerbach, the corypheus of 
the latest school of philosophy in France, is 
Proudhon, One word from this logician of the 
bottomless pit, and we end, for with him all ends. 

“T tell you,” says this demoniac man, 


FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 15 


“‘that the first duty of an intelligent and free man 
is to chase incessantly from the mind and con- 
science the idea of God. Because God, if He does 
exist, is essentially hostile to our nature, and we 
elevate ourselves only at the expense of His 
authority. We arrive at science in spite of Him ; 
at society in spite of Him ; each step we take is a 
victory in which we crush the Divinity. With 
time I will idealize my being, and I will become 
the chief of creation, the equal of God.” Our pen 
stops, our hand refuses to transcribe any further, 
and we are seized with a shudder at the:outrageous 
blasphemies of this terrible Atheist. 

What now are the results of Modern Philoso- 
phy charged to speak to man of God,—of the 
soul,—of the formidable problems of his existence ? 
God is banished; the soul is a fiction; and 
Heaven a mockery. It has substituted in place 
of man’s original and everlasting. convictions, a 
sickly skepticism ; in place of the bright inspira- 
tions of divine truths, an inscrutable chaos ; in 
place of his high hopes, blank despair ! 


XII. 


Aspirations of Aenson, 


“There are 
Powers deeper still beyond—I come in quest 
Of such, to answer what I seek.” 
Byron. 


F such be the legitimate results of both ancient 

and modern philosophy, what, in this case, is 
the value of Reason ? Who will pretend to say 
that Socrates, Plato, Kant, Hegel, Cousin, 
Jouftray, did not possess Reason, Reason informed 
and developed by profound and severe studies, 
cultivated and refined by long and continued ex- 
ercise ; and if they failed to give satisfactory 
solutions to the dark enigmas of life, is not this 
to declare that the highest efforts of Reason are 
vain, and consequently Reason is but a delusive 
and mocking gift? After a condemnation of this 


ASPIRATIONS OF REASON. Fe 


kind, to talk of man’s sovereign and godlike Rea- 
son, is to prate nonsense, insincerity, and sham. 

Patience, indulgent reader, and be careful not 
to fall into the mistake which is not seldom made, 
of taking the speculations of a certain class of men 
called philosophers, for a fair, adequate, and faith- 
ful expression of the capabilities and powers of 
Reason. 

What Reason is capable of doing, and what 
this class of men have done, are two distinct and 
separate things, and should not, therefore, be con- 
founded. The ability of Reason is one thing, and 
the exercise of Reason by a class of men who were 
not altogether free from prejudice, passion, super- 
stition, and, in some instances, of most shocking 
vices, is quite another thing. Reason is by no 
means implicated in the condemnations of the 
abuse made of her powers, or of the unfaithfulness 
to her plainest dictates. Failing to make this 
distinction, an injustice has not seldom been done 
to Reason, her rights even sacrificed, and the 
cause of truth made to suffer deplorable injury. 

No hostile feelings actuate us towards philoso- 
phy, for, after Theology, philosophy is the noblest 
occupation of man’s intellectual powers. But our 
interest and affection for the cause of truth is 
above all others, and we cannot but acknowledge 


78 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE, 


that one of the most humiliating pages of man’s 
intellectual history is that of philosophy. When 
we read this page, it would seem that this class 
of men, instead of bending all their efforts to 
strengthen and support the primary and universal 
convictions of mankind, have somehow done their 
utmost to unsettle and overthrow their everlasting 
foundations. And do not, candid reader, the fore- 
going pages on philosophy fully confirm the truth 
of this remark ? 

How many of the ancient and modern philoso- 
phers employed Reason as a cloak to conceal their 
vanity, pride, or ambition? How many, under 
the pretext of friendship for Reason, exaggerated 
her powers, and became the demagogues of Reason ? 
How many made Reason their slave, so that to 
use the language of Cicero, “ there is no absurdity, 
however great, in defence of which you will not 
find some one of the philosophers who has pros- 
tituted the powers of Reason.” “ Religion and 
morality they never cared for to any part of the 
extent of their religious and moral natural abilities. 
These have been uniformly sacrificed in a vain 
endeavor to appease the disordered cravings that 
right Reason and Free-Will, assisted as they 
always are, should have struggled to restrain and 


overcome.” * 
* Dr. Manahan. 


ASPIRATIONS OF REASON. 79 


Let it be clearly understood, then, that what 
we blame and deprecate in the class of men called 
philosophers, is not Reason, but the want of it ; 
not the exercise of Reason, but the neglect of its 
exercise ; not the use of Reason, but its wilful 
abuse. ‘’ They detained the truth of God in in- 
justice :”—to use the strong language of the 
Apostle of the Gentiles. ‘“ Because they knew God, 
but did not glorify Him as God, or give thanks ; 
but became vain in their thoughts, their foolish 
hearts were darkened. For professing themselves 
to be wise they became fools. And they changed 
the glory of the incorruptible God, into the like- 
ness of the image of a corruptible man, and of 
birds and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping 
things . . . They changed the truth of God into 
a lie; and worshipped and served the creature 
rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever . . 
And as they liked not God in their knowledge, 
God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do 
those things which are not convenient.” * 

Let not the friends of Reason, then, be dis- 
mayed, or fearful that in casting off the false and 
vain speculations of philosophers, Reason thereby 
is in any way condemned or depreciated. On the 
contrary, it is in the august name of Reason that we 


* Rom. c. 1. 


80 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


declare that both ancient and modern philosophy 
have failed in a most decided, not to say shameful 
manner, to meet the great questions which agitate 
the human mind. It is by the light of Reason, and 
on its authority, we are bold to give our deliberate 
and emphatic decision against their speculations as 
the fruits of a fair, impartial, and faithful exercise 
of its powers. 

Every lofty thought of man’s intelligence and 
every noble impulse of the soul, revolt at the idea 
of accepting philosophy with its lifeless abstractions, 
and its dry and dreary speculations, as satisfactory 
answers to the earnest and solemn demands of 
Reason. This would be to dry up our noblest 
aspirations, to palsy our holiest affections, and 
spread desolation throughout the soul. 

The idea of others, that men should wait for 
the solutions of the great problems of their exist- 
ence until philosophy has accomplished the task, 
is so preposterous, that it requires an enormous 
amount of credulity to entertain it for a single 
moment ; and it exacts an incredible effrontery to 
put it forth in the face of the history of philosophy. 

‘“‘ Assuredly,” says one, who ought to know, 
“the circle of incertitudes has been enlarged, new 
questions have been added to those which philos- 
ophy agitated at her cradle; but the new-comers 


ASPIRATIONS OF REASON. 81 


have had no better fortune than the ancients. 
Take any philosophical question ; note the day on 
which the first systems to give it a solution arose ; 
compare those systems with those of to-day, which 
dispute the honor to decide it; you will find, 
doubtless, greater perfection and development in 
the latter, but you will see that their probability is 
not varied. If each one taken separately is the 
strongest, the equilibrium between them is the 
same ; and their progress, far from resulting in the 
solution of the question, has only consecrated in a 
more precise and more scientific manner, its incerti- 
tude. So that, if one asks philosophy what it has 
done since its existence, it can answer, that it has 
given birth, and brought to a greater and greater 
perfection, systems which can aspire to the honor 
to solve it; but that she has not solved one of 
these questions. Behold, then, what philosophy 
cannot say, because, if she said it, she would be 
forced to find examples, one at least,—that is to 
say, to disinter a philosophical question which has 
been definitely solved, as a crowd of questions of 
physics and chemistry, and this example she will 
not find, because it does not exist. And neverthe- 
less these questions, Pythagoras and Democritus, 
Aristotle and Plato, Zeno and Epicurus, Bacon and 
Descartes, Leibnitz, Malebranche, Locke and Kant, 
4 ) 


82 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


have examined and discussed. It is not the fault 
of genius that they have not been solved. What 
is there in philosophy that has rendered all this 
genius helpless ? Whence comes it that a science 
stirred by such powerful hands, remains eternally 
barren? There, is the problem in which all the fu- 
ture of philosophy is placed, and so long as it is 
not solved, one is confounded that distinguished 
minds venture still to cultivate a science so much 
cultivated, discuss those questions so much dis- 
cussed ; as if, after the shipwreck of such great 
men, any intelligence, before discovering the rock 
on which they split, can flatter itself to be more 
skilful or more fortunate, and to arrive at the port 
which escaped them.” * 

After such an explicit and frank admission of 
the inadequateness of philosophy—to tell men to 
wait for the solutions of the great questions of 
their existence until they are solved by philoso- 
phers, this is, indeed, to prate nonsense, insin- 
cerity and sham ; this is mockery and delusion. 

Accordingly, the pages of history prove, prove 
convincingly, that no one man or body of men, or 
nation, however great, learned, or civilized, suc- 
ceeded with philosophy in establishing a Religion 
which answered satisfactorily the demands of 
Reason. 

* Jouffroy, Nouveaux Melanges Philos, p. 90-93. 


ASPIRATIONS OF REASON. 83 


But who now will satisfactorily answer the 
demands of Reason? fix thousand years have 
passed on, and no man, or body or class of men, 
has yet been equal to the task. And what does 
this fact practically indicate ? It is a practical 
indication, in the plainest way possible, that man 
needs a guide greater than himself, to open to him 
the path to the realization of his sublime destiny. 
It indicates that no one but the great Author of 
man’s existence is competent to solve satisfactorily 
the great question of Reason, and to teach him 
the way of accomplishing the great purpose of his 
existence. It indicates that man is endowed with 
the capacity which is susceptible of receiving a 
light superior to that of which he is in possession. 
And is not this to assert the nobility of man’s 
origin, the dignity of his nature, and the gran- 
deur of his destiny ? Is not this the crowning of 
Reason with a diadem of divine brilliancy, splen- 
dor and beauty ? 

Let us, however, adjourn, and discuss this all- 
important question at the tribunal of the whole 
human race. For the constant and unanimous 
testimony of the spontaneous belief of mankind 
claims our homage and exacts our assent. 


XIII. 


Aymissions. 


“Excuse me! in these olden pages 
We catch the spirit of the by-gone ages— 
We see what wisest men before our day have thought.” 
GOETHE. 


AN, from the very cradle of his history, and 

every where, and throughout the course of 
time, acknowledged the necessity, and looked up 
to heaven above for the light to solve the dark 
enigmas connected with his present existence. No 
class of individuals have borne more emphatic 
testimony to the truth of the above statement, 
and made more explicit avowals of this need, than 
the philosophers both ancient and modern. It 
will not be uninteresting to listen awhile to their 
confessions on this point. 


ADMISSIONS. 85 


From the bsginning, Truth was regarded, not 
aga product of the earth, or the creation of man, 
but as a gift of Heaven. Thus Zoroaster says: 
“The Truth is not a plant of this earth.” 

Socrates tells Alcibiades, who was about to 
offer up sacrifice, and at the same time was in 
great perplexity and fear about the way to pray 
to the divinity: “‘ It seems to me necessary for us 
to wait until some one comes to instruct us how 
we ought to conduct ourselves towards God and 
men. Until this comes to pass, it were better 
that you should defer your offering, not knowing 
whether it will be pleasing, or a source ike dis- 
pleasure to God.” * 

And in speaking of the immortality of the 
soul, he says in Phaedon: “The Sage in this 
matter should hold what appears to him the most 
probable, unless he has a surer light, or the word 
of God himself for his guide to show him the way.” 

Plato does not differ from his master on this 
subject. In Epinomede, advising a legislator never 
to meddle with religious matters, he gives his 
reason for this advice by saying : ‘* Because it is 
not possible for mortals to arrive at any thing 
certain in such matters.” In the fifth book of 
Laws he counsels to consult the oracles touching 

* 2d Dialog. Alciab. 


86 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


the worship of the gods,“ because we of ourselves 
know nothing concerning this subject.” 

Cicero, to pass to the Romans, in his Tusculan 
Questions, in resuming the different opinions of 
philosophers, confesses that a divine light is neces- 
sary to discover which of them is the true one. 
‘It would require,” such is his language, ‘‘a god 
to decide which of their opinions is the true one.” 

Jamblichus, in his life of Pythagoras, says 
that ‘‘ Man is obliged to do what is agreeable to 
God ; but,’ he avows, “that it is not easy to 
discover this unless one has learnt it from God 
himself, or from the Genii, or from one who has 
been enlightened by a divine light.” Equally ex- 
plicit, and to the point, is his acknowledgment in 
his book of mysteries : ‘‘ It is impossible,” he says, 
“to speak rightly of the gods unless they them 
selves instruct us.” 

‘No man,” says Seneca, ‘is in condition to 
help himself; some one above him must stretch 
forth his hand to raise him up.” * 

“* According to Proclus : ‘‘ We shall never learn 
what regards the Divinity unless we are enlight- 
ened by a divine light from heaven.” + 

Julian avows that “‘we should regard one as 
a pure intelligence, or rather as a god than a man, 


* Epis. 52. + In Platon, Theol. c. 1. 


ADMISSIONS. 87 


who should possess the knowledge of the nature 
of God.” * 

Xenophon in his Memorab. Socrat., lib. 4 ; 
Plutarch in his treatise on Isis and Osiris ; Marcus 
Aurelius Antoninus at the end of his Moral Re- 
flections, Vol. I. ; in a word, all the great philoso- 
phers of the ancient world, agree with Socrates and 
Plato, that the great enigmas of life can only be 
solved by the aid of a special light from heaven. 

It is therefore on the plain, positive, and un- 
impeachable testimony of the philosophers them- 
selves, that we are furnished the basis of the affir- 
mation of the need of a light superior to that of 
Reason to answer its own demands. 

If our modern philosophers have not made the 
same frank and candid avowals, it is not to be 
attributed to their superiority of genius over the 
ancients, or their philosophical discoveries, but to 
their lack of a disinterested love for truth and 
genuine science. 

We have, however, seen the insufficiency of 
modern philosophy to satisfy the demands of Rea- 
son, and this to every one who would be loyal to 
his Reason, and who would not give up his soul, 
speaks a language louder and easier of interpre- 
tation than words. 


* Letter to Thennis. 


88 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


The more noble-minded and loyal souls among 
these, even, gave vent to the plaints of Reason, 
and the cry of conscience that the efforts and re- 
sults of philosophy are not satisfactory. We have 
only to remind the reader of the frank and candid 
confessions of the distinguished pupil of V. Cousin, 
M. Jouffroy, and the avowals of Hegel’s disciple 
Heine, in the foregoing pages. 

No less candid, mournful, and sincere are the 
confessions of Schiller the poet. Schiller, at an 
early period of his life, devoted himself, with all his 
ardor and enthusiasm, to the study of philosophy. 
We have the whole history of this period of his 
life told in a song entitled 


THE PILGRIM! 


Life’s first beams were bright around me, 
When I left my father’s cot, 

Breaking every tie that bound me 
To the dear and hallowed spot. 


Childish hopes and youthful pleasures, 
Freely I renounced them all ; 

Went in quest of nobler treasures, 
Trusting to a higher call. 


For to me a voice had spoken, 
And a spirit seemed to say: 
Wander forth; the path is broken ; 
Yonder, eastward, lies the way. 


ADMISSIONS. 89 


Rest not, till a golden portal 
Thou hast reached ;—there enter in ; 
And what thou hast procured as mortal, 
There immortal life shall win. 


Evening came, and morn succeeded ; 
On I sped, and never tired ; 

Cold, nor heat, nor storm, I heeded ; 
Boundless hope my soul inspired. 


Giant cliffs rose up before me; 
Horrid wilds around me lay ; 

O’er the cliffs my spirit bore me; 
Through the wilds I forced my way. 


Came to where a mighty river 
Eastward rolled its sullen tide ; 

Forth I launched with bold endeavor,— 
“ Pilgrim stream, be thou my guide !” 


It hath brought me to the ocean: 
Now, upon the wide, wide sea, 
Where’s the land of my devotion ? 

What I seek seems still to flee. 


Woe is me! no path leads hither; 
Earth’s horizon still retreats ; 

Yonder never will come hither, 
Sea and sky will never meet. 


Philosophy, by its glowing promises, excited 
in the bosom of Schiller what it had done in 
Jouffroy, “‘ boundless hopes ;” they both pursued 


90 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


it with all the devotion and courage of youth, and 
the results in both cases were the same—they 
were left on a trackless beach, with a vague, hope- 
less, boundless sea before. 

We may add to these, the testimony of one 
of our own countrymen, whose authority'in such 
matters is preéminent, and extends abroad. 

“This question, how to worship God, is the 
question of questions. It is terrible to feel that 
Reason imposes an obligation which it cannot 
instruct us how to fulfil, to find ourselves with 
broad conceptions which we know not how to 
realize, with a sense of duty hanging over us 
which we cannot practically fulfil, and to hesitate 
between probabilities, to balance between uncer- 
tainties, to find the darkness increase as we ad- 
vance, and finally to lose ourselves in doubt and 
bewilderment. Reason herself, if exercised, is 
sufficient to compel the soul to ask this fearful 
question, but what is and must be our condition, 
if we ask this question, and hear no answer but 
echo mocking us in the distance ? 

‘Every man abandoned to nature and the 
guidance of natural reason alone, does and must 
find himself in this situation, the most painful, 
the most terrible, that can be imagined. It is 
certain that, in this situation, unless God helps 


ADMISSIONS. 91 


us, there is no help for us ; unless he points out 
the way of deliverance, there are no means of our 
restoration, and no chance of our worshipping him 
as Reason declares we are bound to worship him, 
or to gain the end, the good, to which we are 
appointed. 

‘“* Are we, however, left in this condition ? Has 
not God, in fact, had compassion on us, and has 
he not made a revelation of his mercy ? Has he 
not made it possible for us to render him the 
worship which is his due, and to attain to the 
good which he originally intended us? These 
are important questions. If they can be answered 
in the affirmative, there is hope for man ; his face 
may resume the smile of gladness, and a well of 
joy may spring up in his heart. If not, there is 
nothing for us but the blackness of despair, un- 
failing sorrow and ceaseless remorse.” * 

We have another striking evidence, and a 
practical acknowledgment of the need of our 
receiving light from a higher source to meet the 
demands of Reason. What other rational expla- 
nation can be given to the recourse in ancient 
times to the practice of Theurgy, Magic, Astrology, 
Horoscopes, Omens, Divinations, etc., and in our 
day to the practice of Magnetism, Somnam- 


* Brownson. Review. 1848. 


92 THE ABPIRATIONS OF NATURE, 


bulism, Table-Tipping, and other species of Nec- 
romancy, than the working of a mysterious instinct 
of our nature to seek for help to solve the enigmas 
of life and its future destiny. Is not this an open 
confession to all who have not closed up their ears, 
and shut the doors of their understanding, that 
Reason herself, if unswayed, leads man to look 
beyond: her bounds, for the light which is needed 
to answer the questions which torment her? He 
therefore is not the friend of Reason, who, under 
the pretext of her defence, would stifle these com- 
mon instincts of our nature, and. close her eyes 
against the light of heaven. 


XIV. 


Destimowy. 


“From God we come; with awe 
From God those truths ideal draw 
That mock the senses’ ken.” 

Dz VERE. 


HE dictates of Reason, the admissions of both 

ancient and modern philosophers, show the need 
of a divine light to direct man to his sublime 
destiny. This is also confirmed by the voice of 
humanity, for the unanimous belief of the race 
testifies that Religion takes its origin from the 
fact of a Divine communication from heaven. The 
religious history of all nations, peoples and tribes, 
confirms this statement. This universal and spon- 
taneous belief of the human race must be regarded 
by all reasonable minds as having its foundations 
in truth. 


94 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


A volume might easily be filled with testimony 
in favor of this common belief of mankind ; we, 
however shall content ourselves with bringing for- 
ward sufficient proof to put it beyond a reasonable 
doubt. 

““'The ancients,” such is the testimony of Soc- 
rates, “‘ were better than we, and nearer the gods ; 
they have transmitted to us the sublime knowledge 
which they received from them... to abandon 
their opiniens is to go astray.” * | 

Plato affirms that “‘ It behooves us to believe 
without any opposition what the ancients have 
transmitted to us concerning the things which 
regard religion.” And the reason for this is,— 
‘“‘ Because the first men, coming immediately from 
the hands of the gods, must have known best 
concerning this matter, and we ought to believe 
their testimony.” + In his works on Politics, speak- 
ing of the primitive age, he says: ‘‘ God himself 
nourished men, and was their shepherd, as man 
now, a divine creature, feeds the lower animals.” 

On this point Aristotle agrees with his master 
Plato. ‘‘ Do you desire to discover the truth,” 
says Aristotle, “with certitude ; then separate 
with care what is of primitive origin, and hold 
that ; it is that, in truth, which is the original 

* Phileb. t Timeo. 


TESTIMONY. 95 


dogma, which can come surely from no other 
source than God’s own word.” * 

Cicero says the same thing. ‘There was,” 
such is his language, “‘ there wag primitively a 
society of Reason with God.” + 

Again, in the Tusculan Questions, he says: 
“The Laws of the Twelve Tables ordain that we 
should hold the religion of our ancestors ; and that, 
because they were nearer to the gods ; and hence 
religion in this wise was guaranteed to man as a 
divine institution.” 

The Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, in his first book, 
and the later Neo-Platonists, acknowledge that 
religion is an inspiration, a gift of the gods. 

The primitive communication of God with 
men, the age of innocence and happiness, is found 
on almost every page of the poets of Greece and 
Rome, under the image of the Golden Age— 


“That fair age of which the poets tell, 
Ere yet the winds grew keen with frost, or fire 
Fell with the rains, or spouted from the hills, 
To blast thy greenness, while the virgin night 
Was guiltless and salubrious as the day.” t 


* Metaph. xvii. ¢. viii. t+ De leg. lib. i. c. vii. 


¢ Earth, by Bryant. See Virgil, Georg., lib. 1. Juvenal, Satyra vi. Ovid, 
Metamorphosis, lib. 1. The same traditions are found among the Persians; 
see Plutarch on Isis and Osiris; and other nations. 


96 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


Even Volney, in bringing together the different 
kinds of religious belief of mankind, in one point 
makes them all agree, and that is, their doctrines 
had for their basis a divine communication from 
heaven. 

‘“‘ The various groups,” he says, ‘‘ having taken 
their places . . . Then, by order of position, the 
first standard on the left was allowed to speak. 

“You are not permitted to doubt,” said their 
chiefs, “‘ that our doctrine is the only true and 
infallible one. First, it is revealed by God him- 
self.” 

““So is ours,” cried all the other standards, 
“and you are not permitted to doubt it.” * 

No one will contest the value and authority 
of the Bible as an historical document, especially 
when all other historical records agree with the 
events which it narrates. The only difference 
between the Traditions above, and those recorded 
in the Scriptures is, that the latter are more clear, 
more authentic, and more consonant with enlight- 
ened Reason. 

In Genesis we are told that ‘‘God created 
man in his own image and likeness, and walked 
with him in the cool of the day.” 

But we have a more ample account of this 


* Ruins. c. xxi. 


TESTIMONY. 97 


period in the Book of Hcclesiasticus. There we 
are told— 

“God created man of the earth, and made 
him after his own image . . . He created of him 
a helpmate like to himself: he gave them counsel, 
and a tongue, and eyes, and ears, and a heart to 
devise ; and he filled them with knowledge and 
understanding. He created in them the science 
of the spirit, he filled their heart with wisdom, 
and showed them both good and evil. He set his 
eyes upon their hearts to show them the greatness 
of his works ; that they might praise the name he 
hath sanctified, and glory in his wondrous works ; 
that they might declare the glorious things of his 
works. Moreover, he gave theron instructions and 
the law of life for an inheritance. He made an 
everlasting covenant with them, and he showed 
them his justice and judgments. And their eyes 
saw the majesty of his glory, and their ears heard 
his glorious voice, and he said to them: Beware 
of all iniquity. And he gave to every one com- 
mandment concerning his neighbor.” * 

In this account of man’s primitive condition 
we have the original of those more or less obscure 
traditions of all peoples, of which the ancient 
bards, poets, and sibyls sung, and which humanity 
never once doubted. 


* Ecclus, xvii. 


98 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


The results of the labors of all past philosophy, 
the aspirations of Reason, confirmed by the ad- 
missions of ancient and modern philosophers, the 
spontaneous voice of humanity, form one concert 
to proclaim the great need of a special light from 
heaven to solve the dark problems of man’s exist- 
ence, and to point out the way to the accomplish- 
ment of his divine destiny. 


oa fe 


Agreement, 


“ Raise thou up thy head; for know 
Time is not now for slow suspense. Behold 
That way, an angel hastening towards us.”—-DANTE. 


HILOSOPHY, both ancient and modern, hav- 
ing proved insufficient, and the dictates of 
Reason, the admissions of philosophers, and the 
history of all religious beliefs, pointing us upward 
to look for the light needed to solve the dark enig- 
mas of our existence, what are we todo? What 
is our duty ? Somewhere it must exist, for surely 
God has not brought us unto darkness. 

Not. to advance when Reason and the sponta- 
neous belief of the race point out the way, would 
be to yield up our manhood and our humanity. 
Onward! in obedience to our holiest instincts, 
looking heavenward for the light to solve the mys- 


100 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


teries of our being and existence! For what is 
there more natural than for the creature to look 
up to its Creator, like a child to its mother, for the 
solution of the enigmas which torment it. On the 
other hand, can one conceive of an act of an in- 
telliigent creature more irrational than to refuse 
belief to the voice of his Creator ? We, for our 
part, are unable to appreciate the feeling of those 
who seem to have a certain dread in trusting the 
great Author and Sustainer of their being. 

This trust or belief lies back of all our intel- 
lectual knowledge. For, to know any thing, we 
must trust the certitude of the operations of our 
senses, faculties, and powers. No thought, no sen- 
timent, no action can take place unless preceded 
by this belief. This principle we endeavored to 
establish in the second chapter. 

But on the very same grounds that we believe 
in the testimony of our own faculties, we are also 
bound to believe in the testimony of other men. 
For Reason is one and equal in its authority. If 
this be so, that man, by the very law of his exist- 
ence, is obliged to believe in the testimony of his 
own faculties, and those of other men, how much 
more is he bound, and how much more readily 
ought he, to believe God, who is truth itself, and 
the Author of his being, when He speaks ? 


AGREEMENT. 101 


Few men have so perverted their intellectual 
powers, or are sunk so low in the scale of moral 
existence, as to be guilty of refusing belief to their 
Creator and God. Should there be one who is 
euilty of this crime, how can he trust the testimo- 
ny of his own faculties which are the work of 
God’s own hands ? If the Creator himself can 
deceive us, his creations, surely, cannot be more 
trustworthy. 

Consequently, we believe the testimony of our 
faculties, because it is repugnant to right Rea- 
son to think that God should create a being whose 
faculties in their normal state should deceive him. 
And we believe God because the spontaneous im- 
pulses of our nature lead us to confide in Him as 
our Creator, and as the source of all truth, who 
cannot deceive or be deceived. Primarily our be- 
lief is in God, and this belief is the starting point 
and end of all knowledge. 

The pretension of others, who profess to believe 
only what they comprehend, is the promulgation 
of a patent absurdity. Belief and comprehension 
are different operations of our faculties, and it is” 
no mark of intelligence to confound them. 

Do these professors know what it means to 
exclude from the mind that which les beyond our 
powers of comprehension ? Do they know that 

6 P 


102 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


the moment a man makes this the rule of his 
thoughts, he must, if he would be consistent, deny 
his own existence, Reason, creation, and God’s ex- 
istence? Thus this lofty pretension of non-belief 
ends in a manifest absurdity. 

For where is there a man who comprehends 
man, creation, God? Where is there a man who 
comprehends what it is to see, feel, hear, or think ? 
Where is there a philosopher who can explain the 
simplest movement of his own body ? Why, the 
smallest grain of sand that he treads under his 
foot, the meanest blade of grass that he passes un- 
noticed, the feeblest tone that is wafted on the 
winds, present to the mind of man mysteries as 
incomprehensible as the unfathomable Godhead. 
There is not in this wide universe any thing which 
is not in some one or more of its bearings beyond 
the utmost reach of our comprehension. ‘To start 
then from the principle to exclude all from the 
mind which we do not comprehend, is to believe 
nothing, to know nothing, to love nothing, and 
to do nothing. For believing is before all know- 
ing, all loving, all doing. 

He who professes, therefore, to exclude from 
his mind all that he cannot comprehend, is no 
friend but the foe and tyrant of Reason ; for be- 
lief is one of the essential and legitimate results of 
the exercise of Reason. 


AGREEMENT. 103 


And, after all, these pretended non-believers 
believe in their way as strongly as other men. 
They are not able to help themselves. They be- 
lieve in their senses ; for they eat, and drink, and 
love good cheer ; they believe in money, station, 
and the gratification of their instincts and pas- 
sions. But on account of a systematic perversion 
or deficiency of the higher faculties of the soul, 
they would, under the pretext of rationality, 
have men think that their non-belief is a mark of 
superior intellect and wisdom! ‘This reasoning 
reminds us of Aisop’s fable of the fox, who, being 
caught ina trap, had his tail cutoff. Our readers 
will remember the rest of the story. So these 
men would have us believe that their defect is an 
ornament to be coveted. 

Every integral intelligent thinker cannot but 
regard the man who refuses his belief to truths 
which come to him with rational evidence, simply 
because they are beyond the reach of his compre- 
hension, for as great a simpleton as an astronomer 
who should deny the existence of the planets lying 
beyond the reach of his sight, because they are 
only discovered by means of the telescope, 

Another class of men are prepared to welcome 
and accept all light and all truth, come from what 
quarter it may ; but they are not ready to accept 


104 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


or admit any truth hostile to the plain dictates of 
Reason, or that rests not on a rational and suffi- 
cient basis. So speaks our ‘‘ Harnest Seeker.” 

This is the statement of a sound and just 
mind, and all that can be required of men of this 
class is to act consistently and fearlessly on their 
own principles. For light cannot contradict light ; 
truth cannot contradict truth ; nor does it matter 
of what orders these may be. Light and truth are 
like the blue heavens and the wide ocean, all of 
one piece, and blend and join together in mutual 
intercourse. We may rest assured, therefore, if 
God affords to man the light to explain the enig- 
mas of life, or makes known to him any new truth, 
these will be in accordance with the light of Rea- 
son, and in harmony with the truths he has already 
knowledge of. | 

Is it not the height of absurdity to suppose 
that there can be any opposition betwixt the light 
of heaven and the light of Reason ? or contradic- 
tion between the truth and the dictates of Rea- 
son? ‘Truth in contradiction with the very 
faculty to which it is addressed! Truth hostile 
to that faculty whose natural function is to wel- 
come, assent, and embrace it! This is ridiculous 
nonsense. for the light of heaven to one deprived 
of the light of Reason would be of no more utility 


AGREEMENT. 105 


than the light of the sun to a man stark blind. 
Truth, without the dictates of Reason, would be 
like a tree without soil, When will men open 
their eyes and learn that the voice of Heaven, the 
voice of Reason, and the voice of the vast uni- 
verse, form in concert a hymn of praise to God 
who is their origin and final cause. 

But does not the belief in what lies beyond 
our comprehension, in a word religious belief, as it 
is called, when once admitted, set aside Reason, 
limit its exercise, and tend to stultify it ? 

A little indulgence, generous reader ; after the 
exposition of this mistake, we will advance on a 
clear and unobstructed path to our purpose. 

. Would it not be extremely silly to suppose 
that the acceptance of the additional knowledge 
of the wonders of the heavens, gained by powerful 
instruments, would lead one to set aside the 
organ of sight by which this knowledge was ob- 
tained ? Would it not be equally foolish and 
absurd to suppose, that because astronomers have 
discovered other and larger luminous bodies in the 
heavens than the sun, therefore the exercise of our 
unaided sight is thereby limited, its powers con- 
tracted, and rendered useless? It is no less 
absurd and ridiculous to suppose that the ad- 
ditional light and truths gained by virtue of a 

5* 


106 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


reasonable belief, set aside Reason, limit its exer- 
cise, and tend to stultify it. On the contrary, 
every new truth that is made known to Reason, 
calls forth its exercise, sheds additional light on 
the truths already known, makes them better 
understood, and causes the mind to hold them 
more steadfastly; and is not this upholding 
Reason, and giving to it a new splendor and an 
increasing beauty ? 

The man therefore who believes, who possesses 
a reasonable belief, exercises his Reason. No one 
more so. Noone so much so. He exercises the 
faculties of Reason in a higher, wider, more 
sublime sphere than the man of non-belief. For 


“ Belief is a higher faculty of Reason 
* * * * * 


As the snow-headed-mountain rises o’er 
The lightning, and applies itself to heaven.” * , 


Reasonable religious belief does not supplant 
Reason, nor diminish its exercise, but presupposes 
its activity, extends its boundaries, elevates and 
ennobles it by applying its powers to the highest 
order of truth. Accordingly the truths gained by 
virtue of religious belief, take the deepest root in 
the heart, and fix themselves most firmly in the 
mind, and elicit the noblest deeds of self-sacrifice, 


* Bailey. 


AGREEMENT. 107 


of heroism, and the highest form of martyrdom. 
Is not this an evident proof of their congeniality 
with human nature, their elevating power, and 
divine origin ? 

Surely, then, he who deprives himself of the 
knowledge of the order of truths made known to 
us by the exercise of a reasonable religious belief, 
voluntarily condemns himself to live on a lower 
range of thought and feeling, is false to his holiest 
instincts, and is the author of his own degradation. 

The purpose then of true Religion is to open 
to the eye of Reason its divine origin, to elevate it 
to the plane of its glorious destiny, and consecrate 
all the powers of the soul to its realization. 

The aim of Religion is to meet the lofty aspi- 
rations of Reason, and answer the infinite longings 
of ournature: Let us then not refuse the light of 
heaven. Let us be loyal to Reason, and raise up 
Human Nature to its divine grandeur. 


XVI. 


Whither? 


“But ah, with the best will, I see already 
No peace will well up in me, clear and steady. 
But why must hope so soon deceive us, 
And the dried-up stream in fever leave us? 
For in this I have had a full probation ; 
And yet for this want a supply is provided, 
To a higher than earth the soul is guided; 
We are ready and yearn for revelation.” 
: GoETHE’S Faust. 


\ E cannot but consider it an insult to the 

common sense of our readers, for us to at- 
tempt to carry them back to the ancient religions 
of Egypt, Greece, Rome or India, for the needed 
light of heaven, to answer to the aspirations of 
Reason and the spontaneous belief of humanity. 
Marcus Varro, Celsus, Julian, the schools of Alex- 
andria, and a thousand other efforts have been made 


WHITHER? 109 


to restore their worship, but all was in vain. And 
now 
“None 

Are left to teach their worship. ‘The fires 

Of sacrifice are chilled, and the green moss 

O’ercreeps their altars ; the fallen images 

Cumber the weedy courts, and for loud hymns, 

Chanted by kneeling multitudes, the wind 

Shrieks in the solitary aisles.” * 


Nor have the less ancient religious beliefs of 
Arabia, Gaul, the British Isles, or those of the 
savages of America or Australia, claims sufficient 
to engage our serious attention. The glance we 
already bestowed on some of the more intelligent 
forms of these beliefs, ought to be sufficiently 
convincing for candid minds, if the common 
convictions of civilized society did not suffice, to 
acknowledge their utter and complete insufficiency. 

There are a few, here and elsewhere, who for a 
time seem interested in the writings of the Per- 
sian, Chinese, and Indian sages and philosophers. 
These researches we cannot but regard as an 
intellectual amusement, rather than a  single- 
hearted and earnest search after truth. In those 
who are not led by the novelty of the thing, it 
may be an attempt to shirk, or escape, the con- 


* Bryant. 


110 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


victions and responsibilities which the dawning 
truth foreshadows. 

Surely, in any case, it is to run athwart the 
enlightened and cherished convictions of civilized 
society, to look for, or expect, a complete or satis- 
factory solution of the great and solemn questions 
which agitate Reason, and press on our attention, 
outside of Christianity. Any other hope or effort, 
is to tamper with conscience, to trample upon our 
moral sentiments, and to stultify our intelligence. 
We cannot therefore respect ourselves, or be loyal 
to the laws of our intellectual being, and look 
with sincerity for a religion commensurate with 
the demands of Reason and the wants of our 
nature, except it be in Christianity. 

There are others who tell us to look to the 
futuré. They speak, of the “ Religion of the 
Future ;” “The Church of the Future.” Now 
the idea of forming or inventing a Religion at this 
period of the world’s history, is as absurd as to 
tell one who is already famishing for bread, that 
he must wait till wheat be sown, till rain falls, 
the harvest ripens and is gathered, the grain be 
ground, and the flour be made into bread ;—too 
absurd for any not bereft of their proper senses to 
entertain. 

““Tivery day,” says a modern author, “ we 


WHITHER? 111 


hear the future religion of mankind announced ; 
if they cannot produce it, at least they prophecy 
its coming. They transform powerlessness into 
hope. But mankind has no time to spend in 
waiting ; it desires God for to-day, and not for 
to-morrow. It has hungered and thirsted after 
God for six thousand years; and you appearing 
so late, when you set yourselves about the work 
of providing for wants so deeply felt, for aspirations 
which centuries have not weakened, you are still 
reduced to prophecies! For me, all that does not 
furnish humanity with its daily bread, I do not 
believe in. I believe God has been the father 
from the beginning of the soul as well as of the 
body ; I believe that the harvests are all come, 
that the rain has fallen ; that, in the order of 
truth, as in the order of nature, man not only 
hungers, but is also satisfied when he wills it. 
The bread is ready ; God has kneaded it with his 
own hands ; that which is wanting is the will to 
take it as God has prepared it. Men prefer to 
prepare it according to their own tastes ; they ask 
from Reason what Reason is unable to give them.” 

The idea then of forming or waiting for a new 
religion is a flat denial of God’s providence ; and 
a mere subterfuge of a certain class of men to 
escape the claims of truth. Comte reveals their 


112 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


secret when he says that “The Religion of the 
Future is no religion.” 

If, therefore, we are to have a Religion calcu- 
lated for man’s true happiness, one that can give 
satisfactory solutions to the enigmas of life, and 
present to us a pure worship acceptable to God, it 
is to be found in Christianity, or to be looked upon 
as a phantom of despair ! 

But what is Christianity ? The answer to 
this important question is not so clear, for Chris- 
tianity is not one, but divided. Divided, however, 
so far as we are at present concerned, into two 
great parties. ‘The answer, therefore, to the ques- 
tion, What is Christianity ? is twofold. 

The first division of Christianity, and the one 
which bespeaks our earliest attention, because it 
promises to be more favorable to our demands and 
more in accordance with our sentiments ; the one 
of our childhood and education ; the one which 
claims to have emancipated the human thought, 
broken the chains that shackled man’s free activity, 
and opened up to him the true pathway to his 
glorious destiny—need we name it—it is the re- 
hgion which broke forth in the Reformation of the 
sixteenth century ;—the Religion of Luther, Me- 
lancthon, Calvin, Knox, Cranmer, Fox and Wes- 
ley —Protestant Christianity. 


WHITHERP its 


Surely we shall not fail to meet with entire 
and perfect success, when we ask, what do these 
great lights of the Reformation teach in regard to 
the nature and dignity of man’s Reason, its rights 
and value, its liberty and independence ? Has 
not Protestantism emancipated human Reason ? 
consecrated its sovereignty? asserted man’s free- 
dom? upheld the dignity of human nature? Has 
it not restored to man a reasonable worship, one 
acceptable to God, and in accordance with man’s 
intelligence and moral feelings ? Surely it has done 
ali this, and much more of the same nature, and 
to ask such questions in our enlightened day is to 
acknowledge oneself behind the times, uninformed 
of the commonest events, unacquainted with mod- 
ern literature and the common language of civilized 
society. The merest schoolboy is prepared to 
answer questions such as these without a moment’s 
hesitation. Our task is an easy one. The result 
can but be favorable to the cause of genuine Pro- 
testant religion. , ‘ 

It is well for us to remember, however, that 
our ‘‘ Harnest Seeker” at the outset resolved to 
repudiate all creeds and systems of belief which 
were found contradicting the plain dictates of 
Reason, or the clear convictions of conscience. 
He was fully determined to discard a religion 


114 THE ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. 


which should demand in any respect the sacrifice 
of Reason, or whose doctrines should tend to dis- 
parage this noble gift of heaven. He was also 
firmly determined not to suffer any religious belief 
to trample upon, or to mutilate, or to destroy, the 
integrity and dignity of human nature. ‘This was 
his starting point. These were his principles, and 
are these not those of every intelligent mind and 
thinker ? | 

How now does the religion of the great Re- 
formation meet this appreciation of Reason ? 
Does it harmonize with these convictions ? Does 
it look to Reason as the guide of man to truth? 
appeal to it for its approbation ? seek to convince 
it of the truth by affording clear and rational argu- 
ments ? Does it give to the enigmas of Reason a 
clear and reasonable solution ? Does it uphold the 
free and lawful exercise of Reason, and the dignity 
of Human Nature ? Or does Protestantism repu- 
diate Reason, trample upon the convictions of con- 
science, and endeavor to mutilate and abase man’s 
nature ? | 

To be just, frank, and unbiassed, we must 
examine the Protestant Religion in its sources, 
follow it through to its legitimate consequences, 
and look at it in its practical results. 

This all-important inquiry shall begin with the 
following chapter, 


PROTESTANTISM. . 


XVII. 


AL CUSON, 


“The Reformation is the consecration of the sovereignty of the individual 
Reason.”’—Guizor. 


“T UTHER is the key of the Reformation,” * 
so we are told on the high authority of the 
historian of the Protestant Religion. Let us em- 
ploy this key to unlock the precious treasures of 
that powerful movement which changed, in a 
measure, the Christian belief of sixteen centuries. 
What then did Dr. Martin Luther teach con- 
cerning the nature and dignity of human Reason ; 
—the light which is given to every man who 
cometh into the world as his guide and instrument 
in the discovery of Truth? Let us interrogate and 
listen to the teaching of the oracle of the Religion 
of the Reformation. What does he think of man? 


* D’Aubigney. 


116 PROTESTANTISM. 


“If you wish to define man rightly,” he tells 
us, ‘‘ you may say that he is a rational animal, 
endowed with reason and possessing a heart, which 
are inventive.” 

A definition which may pass ; but let us see 
what are the proper functions of this inventive 
reason and heart. 

“What do these faculties invent ?” he de- 
mands. ‘ They invent,’ such is his reply, ‘‘ they 
invent evil, they invent evil against God, against 
God’s commandments, against man. Man there- 
fore,” he continues, “is endowed with reason of 
ceaseless activity. But its activity is always evil 
and godless,” * 

If this be true, were it not better a thousand 
times, that we had never been endowed with the 
gift of Reason ? Who would not rather be like 
those who want discourse of Reason, than to be 
gifted with the faculty which, with its ceaseless 
activity, leads us always astray P Surely sucha 
cift cannot come from a wise and benignant Being, 
but looks rather like the curse of a wicked and 
malignant fiend. 

This opposition to Reason on the part of the 
great Reformer, is not the expression of a mo- 
mentary ebullition of passion, or the flight of a 

* 1B. Moses, Walch i, 875. 


REASON. 117 


sudden but ill-judged piety, which escaped his 
pen. It was, on the contrary, a fixed and unde- 
viating hostility. Let us see how Luther devel- 
opes it. 

““The Christian revelation,’ so he teaches, 
“* rejects clearly all flesh and blood, that is, what 
is human, and all human Reason, since these cer- 
tainly are not able to lead us to Christ! Hence 
these things are undoubtedly nothing but vain 
darkness. Yet the High Schools, the schools of 
the devil, make a great noise, and not only extol 
the natural right of Reason, but even hold it up 
as something good, useful, necessary to the know- 
ledge of Christian truth. It is clear that no one 
beside the High Schools have found this out, 
except it be the devil himself, in order to over- 
throw and obscure Christian truth, which alas too 
often happened.” * 

Thus, having established in his own mind an 
essential antagonism between the natural light of 
Reason and that of Revelation, he ridicules the 
idea that the light of the one can be of any service 
to the other. He says in the same work : 

““ With the pretty comparison that the divine 
light sheds its rays upon the natural light of Rea- 
son, like the light of the sun on a fine painting, 

* Kirchen Postil. xi, 459, 


118 PROTESTANTISM. 


this the Schools have introduced from the teaching 
of heathens into Christianity. The devil told 
them to say that. In this manner God’s word is 
trampled under foot ; but, when it comes forth, 
it knocks all such devilish teachings to powder.” * 

In the first instance we were told that Reason 
with its ceaseless activity always leads us to evil 
and godlessness ; hence it is worthless as a guide 
or instrument in finding truth ; and secondly, we 
are instructed that Reason is hostile to Christian 
truth, its ight is nothing but vain darkness, and 
that God’s word knocks its devilish teachings to 
powder. If the words of Dr. Luther be those of 
truth, if his teachings be the key of the Reforma- 
tion, nothing can be more pleasing to God, and no 
duty is more imperative on one who holds the 
Protestant faith, than to endeavor to put out the 
light of Reason, and despise its dictates. Indeed 
we have the Dr. telling us so in his famous and 
classical Letters on the Galatians. 

“The man of faith,” so says the Reformer, 
“throttles Reason, and says to it: Reason, you 
are a silly, blind fool. You understand not a 
farthing’s worth. Do not cut up so many pranks 
with your bellowing opposition, but shut up your 
mouth, and hold your tongue. Do not pretend to 


* Kirchen Postil. p. 599. 


REASON. 119 


be the judge of God’s word, but quiet yourself, 
and hear what it tells you, and believe it. In 
this way the faithful smother the beast, which 
the whole world could not do, and, by thus doing, 
they make the most pleasant offering and sacrifice 
that can be given to our Lord God.” * 

The destruction of Reason is not only the duty 
of the followers of this champion of true Christi- 
anity, but its destruction must necessarily precede 
Christian faith. He answers those who hold that 
Reason is one of the necessary conditions of faith, 
in the following manner : 

** Children on the very account that they have 
not Reason, can and do believe more perfectly ; 
since Reason goes straight against belief. We 
ought therefore to let Reason slide. Reason must 
be killed and buried in faith. You say Reason is 
a light to faith, that it should enlighten faith 
where it should go ; yes, in my judgment, Reason 
sheds light, like a piece of dirt ina lantern. It 
is Christ’s will that if we would enter the kingdom 
of heaven we should become little children, that 
is, as children are wanting all Reason and under- 
standing, so Reason should be destroyed in all 
Christians, otherwise faith has no place in them, 
for Reason fights against faith.” + 


* Walch vy. iii p. 2044, t+ L. Ungedr. Pred: Bruno. p. 106. 


120 PROTESTANTISM. 


To be a Christian, according to this Gospel, 
one has to cease to be a rational creature, and 
become a ninny. ‘This is indeed the consecration 
of the sovereignty of individual Reason with a 
vengeance! Such a Gospel would find better 
material to work upon, and for its free and full 
development, among the beasts who want discourse 
of Reason, than among intelligent beings. It 
would find readier success among baboons, ourang- 
outangs, and other tribes of monkeys, than among 
a thinking and a reasoning people, for in the 
monkeys there is no need of the preparation work 
of the demolition of Reason to make way for faith ; 
this kind of faith could take root at once ! 

Why in the name of common sense are we told 
and told again to “read the Bible,” to ‘search 
the Scriptures,” if we are not to use our Reason, 
if the destruction of Reason is the condition of 
faith ? Oh it isa pity that that ‘‘ most blessed 
discovery of an old Latin Bible which Luther 
found in Erfurt Library” was not read to a better 
purpose! Pity it did not shed a brighter light in 
the Reformer’s soul than to teach him to disparage 
and despise God’s noblest gift to man,—Reason ! 

But listen once more to this great German, 
whose followers pretend that he emancipated the 
human mind,—Reason : 


REASON. 121 


“You must come to this point,” he says, ‘or 
it is all over with you ; you must strip yourselves 
of Reason altogether, and through faith throw it 
away ; it is this word faith which gives eternal 
life. Moreover, he that would hear the word of 
Christ, let him leave the Jackass Reason at home, 
and neither be guided, nor judge according to Rea- 
son ; if he does so, he irritates Christ.” * 

Is it to be wondered at, when men discover 
that the only way to religious belief is by repudi- 
ating Reason, and by trampling under foot its dic- 
tates, that they prefer to retain their self-respect 
and reverence for God, rather than embrace a Re- 
ligion which outrages both P “If Reason in its 
most decisive judgments on Religion, is unworthy 
of trust, then Christianity, even natural theology, 
must be abandoned ; for the existence and veracity 
of God, and the divine original of Christianity, are 
conclusions of Reason, and must stand or fall with 
it. If revelation be at war with this faculty, it 
subverts itself, for the great question of its truth 
is left by God to be decided at the bar of Reason. 
It is worthy of remark, how nearly the bigot and 
the skeptic approach. Both would annihilate our 
confidence in our faculties, and both throw doubt 
and confusion over every truth. We honor revye~- 


* Ausleg. Ey. Johan. vii. 2160, 


6 


122 PROTESTANTISM. 


lation too highly to make it the antagonist of 
Reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce 
our highest powers.” * 

But did Luther really mean what we have 
quoted from his writings? Were not these ex-- 
pressions thrown out in the heat of argument, or 
uttered in sport? Did he renounce thus the 
authority of Reason, and abandon himself to the 
mercy of every error and absurdity? Judge by 
the following. He says: 

“That two and five make seven, that I can 
grasp with my Reason; but if it should be told 
me from above, No, two and five make eight, I 
would believe it against my Reason and feelings. 
The devil’s sole occupation is to get the Romish 
priests to measure God’s will in his works with 
Reason.” + 

By this we see that the author of the Refor- 
mation was not satisfied with setting aside Rea- 
son to make way for what he calls faith; but 
even would have us believe what is contradictory 
to the plainest dictates of Reason. Yet the sup- 
position that any thing can come from above which 
may contradict Reason, is simply absurd. We 
may rest assured if any such message comes, it 
comes not down from above, but up from below. 


* Dr. Channing, Vol. 8, p. 66. + Kireh Post. xi. 2308. 


REASON. 123 


And the proper answer to one who should bring 
such a message would be, ‘Away, you black 
imp, and return to the father of les who sent 
you !” 

Let us close our account with “the key of the 
Reformation” by a passage taken from his last 
sermon at Wittemberg, in which he treats the 
very point in hand, “‘ The relations of human 
Reason with Revelation.” 

‘“‘ Reason is the devil’s bride,” so says Dr. 
Luther, “‘a pretty strumpet, a cursed whore, an 
outcast, a public prostitute, the greatest whore 
of the devil; she should be trampled under foot 
with all her wisdom, she should be murdered, dirt 
should be thrown in her face to make her hateful, 
she should be dragged through the privy, the 
cursed whore with her darkness,” * 

Is this, candid Reader, the language of one 
“for whom we, and generations to come, have to 
be thankful” ? f or is it the raving of a madman ? 
Surely his co-reformer Hospinian was not far out 
of the way when he said: “ This man Luther is 
absolutely mad.” Or Zwingle, another co-worker 
in this pretended liberation of the human mind, 
when he declared that “‘ The devil has made him- 
self master of Luther.” 


* Leip. Ausg. xii, 373. + Carlyle, 


124 PROTESTANTISM. 


If this be the boasted emancipation of human 
Reason which we have had rung in our ears from 
our earliest childhood by our fathers, teachers, 
orators, school books, literature, press, and every 
other channel of communication, then have we 
been most grossly imposed upon. Luther the 
champion of Reason! Luther the Friend of Pro- 
gress ! Luther the Liberator of modern thought ! 
Was there ever such a shame-faced imposition 
practised upon mankind ? Yet those who plume 
themselves in being the more enlightened portion 
of society, have swallowed it in perfect simplicity ! 
And would have the world believe too that ‘‘ it is 
under a lasting debt of gratitude to the German 
monk of Erfurt !” * 

It may be said that these opinions were those 
of Luther, and not shared by his co-workers in the 
great Reformation ? But are we not told that 
‘“‘ Luther is the key of the Reformation?” Is it 
not then through him we are to find the great 
truths which shed so glorious a light on the world ? 
Certainly. And if we find any difference in this 
matter between the key of the Reformation and 
his followers, it will be not in opinion, but in lack 
of the same boldness and freedom of expression. 

““The Theologian of the Reformation,’ as 


* Carlyle. 


REASON. 125 


Melancthon was called, let us into the secret of 
his opinions on this point by showing an antipathy 
to the very name of Reason. He says: “ that it 
was by the gradual introduction of philosophy in 
religion, that the most pernicious word Reason 
began to be used.” * 

This passage alone would be sufficient to con- 
vict Melancthon of holding the same opinions as 
his master, had we no other proofs. Further on 
we shall take occasion to show that not only 
Melancthon, Calvin, etc., condemned Reason and 
its exercise, but denied to man in his present 
state, even the possession of the faculty of Reason. 

Leibnitz, sensible of the discredit it would 
throw upon the Protestant religion if it were once 
admitted that Luther was an enemy to Reason, 
endeavors to explain away his meaning. Thus 
Luther in his work, entitled ‘*‘ The Slave-Will,” 
says: “If it pleases thee that God crowns the 
unworthy, it ought not to displease thee that God 
condemns the worthy.” + 

Now Leibnitz, in construing this passage, says: 
“This reduced to more moderate expressions, 
means, if you approve that God gives eternal 
glory to those who are no better than others, you 


* Loc. Theol. Augs. 1821, p. 10. t Ch. 174. 


126 PROTESTANTISM. 


ought not to disapprove that he abandons those 
who are no worse than others.” * 

With all due regard to the intellectual gifts of 
Leibnitz, his friendly interference does not save his 
fellow-countryman from shocking Reason and out- 
raging the sense of justice. Luther tells us that 
* God crowns the unworthy.” Leibnitz that “ God 
gives eternal glory to those who are no better than 
others.” Who are these ‘ no better than others” 
of which Leibnitz speaks? Are they worthy of 
eternal glory? If so, then his proposition is alto- 
gether dissimilar to Luther’s. Are they unwor- 
thy ? If so, then he has not helped his friend 
Luther, but only reiterated his statement. Lu- 
ther’s second proposition is, that ‘‘ God condemns 
the worthy.” That of Leibnitz is that “ God 
abandons those no worse than others.” Who are 
these “‘no worse than others” of Leibnitz? Do 
they deserve condemnation ? If so, then his pro- 
position is contrary to Luther’s. Are they not 
deserving condemnation ? ‘Then, again, Leibnitz 
does not escape the charge any less than Luther, 
of contradicting the dictates of Reason and vio- 
lating the principles of justice. 

‘*Men may construe things after fashion, . 


Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.” 


* Leib. Opera ; Conform. de la foi avec raison. 


REASON, 137 


But it would require a greater philosopher 
even than Leibnitz to show that the Protestant 
religion is not unfriendly, hostile, and destructive 
of man’s Reason. 

If we wanted proof of the unintellectual char- 
acter of the Reformation, we have it in the ac- 
knowledgment of the distinguished historian and 
protestant, Guizot. In his history of Civilization 
of Hurope, he says, in speaking of “ the religious 
revolution of the Sixteenth Century,” that “it 
was ignorant of the true principles of intellectual 
liberty. It did not elevate itself to the first cause, 
nor descend to the last consequences of its work 

... The Reformation did not fully comprehend 
and receive its own principles and effects.” * 

Which means, in other words, that Protestant- 
ism, from the point of view of intelligence, was 
from its commencement a stupid affair, illogical, 
and an insult to the common sense and Reason of 
mankind, 

* 12 Lecon. 


XVII. 


Hree-TWHill. 


“ Of this be sure, 
Where freedom is not, there no virtue is; 
If there be none, this world is all a cheat, 
And the divine stability of heayen,— 
(That assured seat for good men after death,) 
Is but a transient cloud, displayed so fair 
To cherish virtuous hope, but at our need 
Eludes the sense, and fools our honest faith, 
Vanishing into a lie.” CROWE. 


HATEVER man may be, take from him 

moral freedom and you rob him of his dignity, 
destroy his conscience, and undermine his responsi- 
bility to God, his duty to himself, and to his fellow- 
men. Deny to man free will and you lower him 
down in the scale of existence to the beasts which 
perish, and make a total wreck of the noble struc- 
ture of his being. Disinherit man of his free 
agency, and you make him a slave to some foreign, 


FREE-WILL. 129 


tyrannical, or despotic power. You make man a 
machine, a thing without sense, nobility, or 
grandeur. 

But Protestantism cannot surely be charged 
justly with teaching doctrines of such degrading 
tendencies. Did not the Reformation awaken the 
spirit of freedom throughout the world 2? Were 
not the Reformers stanch friends of human lib- 
erty ? Did not the people, when Luther passed 
through their streets, cry out to this bold and 
fearless champion, “‘ Free us!” and did he not 
do it? Did not the Protestant Religion give 
such a blow to the chains which had fettered the 
minds of men for ages, that they were shattered 
for ever in pieces ; and thus man restored to his 
native dignity and heaven-born freedom? Can 
any doubt exist in intelligent minds of the truth 
of this ? 

Let it not weary our readers to pause awhile 
here, and examine these grand assertions freely. 
It is not all gold that glitters. And as free in- 
quiry is a part of our birthright, we will use it. 

Taking once more “‘ the Key of the Reforma- 
tion,” Dr. Martin Luther, in our hands, let us 
interrogate his writings concerning the free will 
of man. | 

“Man,” so says the Doctor, “ is like a horse. 

6% 


130 PROTESTANTISM. 


Does God leap into the saddle ? The horse is 
obedient, accommodates itself to every movement 
of the rider, and goes whither he wills it. Does 
God throw down the reins? -Then Satan leaps 
upon the back of the animal, which bends, goes, 
and submits to the spurs and caprices of its new 
rider. ‘The will cannot choose its rider, and can- 
not kick against the spur that pricks it. It must. 
get on, and its very docility is a disobedience and 
asin. The only struggle possible is between the 
two riders, God and the Devil, who dispute the 
momentary possession of the steed. And then is 
fulfilled the saying of the Psalmist: ‘‘ I am be- 
come like a beast of burden.” * 

In reading this passage one is in doubt 
whether to break out in bursts of laughter at the 
ridiculousness and absurdity of such a picture of 
man, or to give way to bursts of indignation 
against doctrines which so utterly degrade our 
nature. If man be the mere passive instrument 
of God, or the complete slave of the devil, as the 
case may be, and he has no more to say about it 
than a horse has to say who shall be his rider, then 
what have we left to do, but despair, or live in 
good cheer, and be indifferent. As to the possibility 
of doing any thing towards realizing the great end 


* Op. Luth. tom. 11, p. 1776, 


FREE~-WILL. 13} 


of our existence,—that is out of all question. For 
this “‘ true great man for whom the whole world 
and its history was waiting,’ * adds that : 

“In spiritual and divine things which regard 
salvation, man is like a statue of salt such as Lot’s 
wife was changed into. Yes, man is a stock 
and a stone, a dead statue which has no use of its 
eyes, mouth, any of its senses, or its heart.” 

To talk after this or that “instinct of lib- 
erty,” ‘‘ nobility of the soul,” ‘‘ dignity of Human 
Nature,’ and pretend to be a Protestant, a dis- 
ciple of Luther, is to throw overboard common 
sense, and to proclaim oneself fanatically absurd. 
This ‘‘ great man” is not satisfied with enunciating 
his doctrine, he employs illustrations that he may 
be understood, and illustrations of his own kind 
and classical taste. 

“‘ Catch me, in the name and strength of Free 
Will, a flea or a louse, and kill it,” he says, in 
reply to Erasmus’ defence of Free Will, ‘ then 
you will have gained your cause. Then we will 
come to you and offer up our prayers to this great 
God of Free Will.” t 

Is it not mockery to tell us that man is a 
responsible being, and accountable for all his 
actions, if this be true? Virtué, self-sacrifice, 


* Carlyle. t In Gen. c. 14, t Wit. Ausg. Th. 6, 462. 


132 PROTESTANTISM. 


heroism—these are but empty sounds. This 
champion of human liberty is not “yeh done. 
Listen ! 

“‘ Before all,” he says, ‘it is necessary and 
useful for the Christian to know that God foresees 
nothing in a contingent manner ; but he foresees, 
proposes, and acts from his eternal and immutable 
will ; this is the thunderbolt which destroys and 
overturns Free Will! Let those, then, who come 
forward as the champions of that doctrine, deny 
first this thunderbolt. And thus it follows irre- 
fragably, that every human action, although it 
seems to be done in a contingent manner, and 
subject to the doctrine of chances, is necessary and 
irresistible in the order of Providence. Therefore 
it is not Free Will sii scenic which is ny 
acting principle in us.’ 

Can we trust our eyes, and ourselves, when 
doctrines such as these are put forward in an 
intelligent and Christian community as the teach- 
ings of the Gospel, as evangelical Christianity ! 
They sound more like the ravings of the Grand 
Turk Mahomet, who with his all-absorbing Pan- 
theism annihilates all human agency. Yet we 
are told by men who boast of doing their own 
thinking, that ‘‘ Luther was the mighty man 


* De Serv, Arb. ady. Eras, t. iii. p. 170. 


FREE-WILL. 133 


whose light was to flame as the beacon over long 
centuries and epochs of the world !” * 

Not satisfied with the denial of Free Will, 
Luther would reject it were it offered to him. 

“As for myself,” he says, ‘“‘I confess that 
were Free Will offered to me I would not accept 
it, nor any other instrument that might aid in my 
salvation.” T 

One would believe that according to the light 
of Protestantism, the great purpose of Christianity 
was to make man an abject slave, and to have him 
hug the chains which fetter his free limbs. 

The mild and learned Melancthon held the 
same hostile opinions, and shared the same feel- 
ings of hatred against the doctrine of man’s Free 
Will. 

He stigmatizes it as “an impious doctrine, 
introduced into Christianity from the Pagans.” { 

Like Luther, he denies man’s freedom in toto. 
He says: “ There is no liberty of our will. All 
that takes place happens according to a divine 
predestination.” § 

Melancthon had the hardihood even to assert 
that “God wrought all things, evil as well as 
good ; that God was the author of David’s adulte- 


* Carlyle’s Heroes. + Ibid. t. 1. p. 171. 
t Loc. Theol. Aug. ed. 1821, p. 10. § Loc. Theol. Bale, 1521, p..35. 


134 PROTESTANTISM. 


ry, and the treachery of Judas, as well as of the 
conversion of Paul—not permissively, but effectu- 
ally as his own work.” * 

But in a subsequent edition of his works he 
combats this very opinion, and carefully abstains 
from mentioning that formerly it was his own. 

Zwingle asserts the same detestable opinions. 
He says: “‘ Adultery and murder are one and’ the 
same crime, since God is the author, mover, and 


impeller to sin. . . . God impels the robber to kill 
the innocent, even though he is unprepared for 
death.” + 


As regards the Genevan Reformer, Calvin, he, 
in numberless instances, employs the expressions : 
““Man, at the instigation of God, doeth what it is 
unlawful to do.” ‘‘ By a mysterious and divine 
inspiration, the heart of man turneth to evil.” 
‘Man falleth because the providence of God so 
ordaineth.” 

Let one citation from this corypheeus of pre- 
destination suffice. He says: ‘‘'The reprobate 
are inexcusable though they cannot avoid the 
necessity of sinning, and this necessity comes from 
God. God speaks, but it is in order to render 


* Mart. Chemnitz. loc, theol. edit. Leyden, 1615, p. 1, 178. 
+ De Prov. p. 865-6. t Just. b. iv. c. 18, § 12; b. iii. ¢. 28, § 8. 


FREE-WILL. 135 


them more deaf. He offers to them remedies, but 
it is in order that they may not be cured.”* 

Beza goes so far as to say that God created a 
portion of men as his instruments, with the intent 
of working evil through them.” 

We may, however, be told that this is old 
Protestantism ; modern Protestantism is quite 
another thing. Not so fast, generous reader ; here 
we have “ the Confession of Faith of the Presby- 
terian Church, held in Philadelphia, in the United 
States of America, in the year of our Lord 1827,” 
and it discourses in the following strain on these 
points ; 

“Of God’s Eternal Decree. c. i., 3. ii, By 
the decree of God for the manifestation of his glory 
some men and angels are predestinated unto ever- 
lasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting 
death.” Sec. v. “‘ Those of mankind that are pre- 
destinated unto life God hath chosen in Christ 
unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace 
and love, without any foresight of faith and good 
works, or perseverance in either of them, or any 
other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes 
moving him thereto, and all to the praise of his 
glorious grace.” Sec. vill. “‘ The rest of mankind 
God was pleased, for the glory of his sovereign 


* Inst. 1, ¢. 3, 234, + Aphor, xxii, 


136 PROTESTANTISM. 


power over his creatures, to pass by, and ordain 
them to dishonor and wrath for their sins, to the 
praise of his glorious justice.” 

It would seem in reading what has preceded 
that the Reformers and their worthy descendants 
have endeavored to gather together in one body all 
the doctrines which could shock reason, and out- 
rage those moral feelings implanted in our breast 
by our Creator, and called them Christianity, 
Evangelical Christianity ! 

Nor is the Church of England behind her 
sister Protestant churches in “ Evangelical Chris- 
tianity.” From the thirty-nine Articles and the 
Homilies, and still more from the persecution of 
the assertors of Free Will in England, it is clear 
that the Anglican Church held these doctrines till 
the end of the reign of James I. In the course 
of this king’s reign there were sent Episcopal 
representatives from England and Scotland to the 
great Protestant Synod of Dort. There, in the 
name of their representative churches, they signed 
that ‘‘ the faithful who fall into atrocious crimes 
do not forfeit justification, or incur damnation.” 

Does not the seventh of the ‘‘ Articles of Re- 
ligion” justify their conduct P It says: 

“ Predestination to life is the everlasting pur- 
pose of God, whereby, before the foundations of 


FREE-WILL. 137 


the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed 
by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse 
and damnation those whom he hath chosen in 
Christ out of mankind, and to bring them to 
Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to 
honor.” | 

The Methodists held the same degrading 
opinions. Charles Wesley shall be our witness. 
He gives us the following conversation held by 
himself with one whom he calls “a pillar of the_ 
Church, J. W., at Birmingham.” 

“Do you believe that you have nothing to do 
with the law? Ihave not. I am not under the 
law. I live by faith. Have you, as living by 
faith, a right to every thing in the world? I 
have. All is mine since Christ is mine! May 
you then take any thing you will, any where ? 
Suppose, out of a shop, without the consent of the 
owner? I may if I want it ; for it is mine ; only 
I will not give offence. Have you a right to all 
the women in the world P Yes, if they consent ! 
And is not that sin? Yes, to him that thinks it 
asin; but not to those whose hearts are free.” 
“And Roger Ball of Dublin afterwards affirmed 
the same thing.” * 

To make man irresponsible for his actions is 


* Southey’s Life, v. ii. p. 144 


138 PROTESTANTISM. 


to deny the freedom of the will. The one goes 
with the other. Alarmed at the results of his 
preaching, Wesley called a Conference of the 
leading Methodist preachers, and publicly confessed 
“that they had leaned too much to Calvinism, 
and also to Antinomianism. The main pillar of 
which was that Christ had abolished the moral 
law, that Christians are under no obligation to 
observe it, and that a part of Christian liberty’ 
was liberty from observing the commandments of 
God.” # 

‘A separation took place, and the greater 
part of the Methodist clergy adhered to Lady 
Huntingdon’s party, who was the head of the Cal- 
vinists.” 

That the founder of Methodism was not behind 
the early Reformers in his unnatural creed, is 
made clear from a letter of his to parents on the 
education of children. He says: ‘“‘ that in par- 
ticular they should labor to convince them of 
atheism, and show them that they do not know 
God, love him,-delight in him, or enjoy him, any 
more than do the beasts that perish.” { 

How one so destitute of all the feelings of our 
common humanity should be looked up to as 
almost an inspired teacher of him who said: 


* Whitehead, p. 278. + Southey, p. 179. + Southey, p. 2385. 


FREE-WILL. 139 


“ Suffer little children to come unto me, for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven,” is strange, pass- 
ing strange ! 

The same sentiments are taught to the little 
baptized children of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in our own day. In the Sunday-school 
library of one of the Chapels of Trinity Church, 
we found a volume of “Hymns for Children,” 
containing the following lines : 


* Sin is the substance of each thought. 
Each word, each deed with sin is fraught. 
Your little hearts are all unclean, 

And quite the dwelling-place of sin.” 


The image of God which each one bears in his 
soul consists chiefly in Reason and Free-Will ; 
yet here is a religion pretending to be God’s re- 
ligion, and at the same time would rob us of his 
image, dry up all the generous impulses of the 
soul, and stifle its noble aspirations ; and make 
virtue, devotion, love, a mere name, a phantom ! 

Such is Protestantism in theory, such is Pro- 
testantism in practice. Listen to the language 
of one who felt its soul-destroying influence, and 
therefore speaks from experience. It is a voice 
from the once Calvinistic New England. 

“¢'Too many think religion a depressing, rather 


140 PROTESTANTISM 


than an elevating service, that it breaks rather 
than ennobles the spirit, that it teaches us to 
cower before an almighty and irresistible Being ; 
and I must confess, that religion, as it has gener- 
ally been taught, is any thing but an elevating 
principle. It has been used to scare the child, 
and appal the adult. Men have actually been 
taught to glorify God by flattery, rather than by 
becoming excellent and glorious themselves, and 
thus doing honor to their Maker. Our dependence 
on God has been so taught, as to extinguish the 
consciousness of our free nature and moral power. 
Religion, in one or another form, has always been 
an engine for crushing the human soul. But such 
is not the religion of Christianity. If it were, it 
would deserve no respect. We are not, we cannot 
be bound to prostrate ourselves before a deity, who 
makes us abject and base. That moral principle 
within us, which calls us to watch over and perfect 
our souls, is an inspiration which no teaching can 
supersede or abolish.” * 


* Dr, Channing, vy, ii. p. 214. 


XIX. 


Human Batre, 


“Digitum erigere peccas.”—PERcIvs. 


To raise your finger is to sin. 


ILLINGLY we would have stopped our in- 

vestigation on so unpleasant a subject in our 
last chapter, for it is already sufficiently shown, in 
our judgment, that Protestantism is inimical to 
Reason, disinherits man of his liberty, and hence 
has no claims on intelligent minds, and men who 
respect themselves. Yet, every body knows that 
we shall have it proclaimed from pulpits, pub- 
lished in the papers, spoken forth by orators, sung 
by poets, and written and rewritten by historians 
until we are sickened at it, that the Protestant 
Reformation was the dawn of a new light, the 
advocate of liberty, and the upholder of the dignity 
of Human Nature. 


142 PROTESTANTISM. 


To keep silence while such falsehoods are pro- 
claimed boldly in our streets and from our house- 
tops, would be recreant to the cause of truth. 
The time has come to strip this religion, hostile to 
our nature, of its garb of ight, and show its hidden 
character to the world. 

The two foregoing chapters must have con- 
vinced our readers, that one of the cardinal doc- 
trines of Protestantism is that of the utter worth- 
lessness of Human Nature. But as this was not 
the precise point we had then in hand, we will 
now devote a few pages bearing directly on it. 

‘‘ Sin,” so says Dr. Luther, ‘is not anact ora 
phenomenon of our nature ; it is our very nature, 
and our whole being itself.” * 

If our nature is in itself wholly depraved, what 
points of contact can truth, goodness, religion have 
with it ? Howcan these touch or affect us in any 
manner ? How is virtue, religion, morality pos- 
sible ? For, 

** All that you can do,” says the same Luther, 
‘begins in sin, remains in sin; it may appear . 
ever so good and pretty ; you can do nothing but 
sin, act as you please.” + Again, 

“All that is in our will is evil, all that is in 
our understanding is only error and blindness. 


* Aug. Ausg. xi. 2793. + Walch, Ausg. xi. 12. 


HUMAN NATURE. 143 


Therefore, man has, in regard to divine things, 
nothing else than utter darkness, error, wickedness, 
perverseness, bad will, and misunderstanding.” * 

Melancthon takes up the same theme, and 
Says : 

“Tt is sufficient for a Christian to know that 
all works of nature, all inclinations and endeavors 
of Human Nature are sins.” | Again, “‘ Such is 
man that by his natural strength he can do no- 
thing but.sin. ..... The works which precede 
justification are all the fruit of the cursed tree, 
and although they. may be examples of the most 
beautiful virtues, nevertheless they are nothing 
but deceit and lies.” + 

If this be so, what becomes of the bright ex- 
amples of virtue of the pagan world, as Aristides, 
Socrates, Zenocrates, Lucretia, Camillus, and a 
thousand others ? Listen to ‘* the mild Melanc- 
thon,” and he will satisfy your curiosity. 

“Let it be supposed,” he says, ‘‘ that there 
was a certain constancy in Socrates, and chastity 
in Zenocrates, temperance in Zeno, these shadows 
of virtue dwelt in impure souls, and sprang from 
self-love and vanity, and ought not to be held for 
virtues, but looked upon as so many vices.” § 


* Walch. Ausg, y. 778, + Loc. Com, de peccato, ed. 1521. 
t De Just. § Ibid. 


144 PROTESTANTISM. 


A celebrated writer, in speaking of the bane- 
ful effects of these views, remarks : “‘ Some of the 
most affectionate tokens ‘of God’s love within and 
around us are obscured by this gloomy theology. 
The glorious faculties of the soul, its high aspira- 
tions, its sensibility to the great and good in char- 
acter, its sympathy with disinterestedness and 
suffering virtue, its benevolent and religious in- 
stincts, its thirst for a happiness not found on earth, — 
these are overlooked or thrown into the shade, 
that they may not disturb the persuasion of man’s 
natural corruption. Ingenuity is employed to dis- 
parage what is interesting in the human character. 
Whilst the bursts of passion in the new-born child 
are gravely urged as indications of a nature rooted 
in corruption, its bursts of affection, its sweet 
smile, its innocent and irrepressible joy, its loveli- 
ness and beauty are not listened to, though they 
plead more eloquently its alliance with higher na- 
tures. . . . Even the higher efforts of disinterested 
benevolence, and the most unaffected expressions 
of piety, if not connected with what is called the 
‘true faith,’ are, by the most rigid disciples of this 
doctrine which I oppose, resolved into passion for 
distinction, or some other working of unsanctified 
nature.” * 

Calvin by no means softens this picture of 


* Dr. Channing, vol. iii, p. 186, 


HUMAN NATURE. 145 


man. He passes the same judgment in his Insti- 
tutes on the virtues of the ancient pagans, * and 
one of its chapters has for its title the following 
proposition : “ From corrupt Human Nature pro- 
ceeds nothing thatis not damnable.” + One cita- 
tion will suffice to show the opinions of Calvin : 

‘“‘ There remains,” he says, “ this indubitable 
truth which no artifice can shake, that the mind 
of man is so far alienated from God’s justice, that 
he violently conceives, desires, and strives after 
nothing that is not impious, fallacious, filthy, im- 
pure ; his heart is so filled with poison, that it 
breathes forth nothing but stench.” ¢ 

If our nature be wholly bad, desires nothing, 
and can do nothing, but sin, of course we cannot 
be expected to desire the truth, to love the good, 
to crave religion, to reverence God, or to wish for 
any virtue or goodness whatever. Human Nature 
and Religion are once and for all eternally sepa- 
rated and divorced. How they ever can be united 
again is beyond comprehension. This point, 
however, will afford material for another chapter 
of absurdities. Let us not anticipate. 

The Presbyterian Confession of Faith of 1827, 
Art. xi., speaking of the effects of the fall, holds 
the following language : 

* Lib. fii. 614, 91-7. +t Lib. ii, ¢. 8, p, 98. ¢ Inst, xi, « v. 


7 


146 PROTESTANTISM. 


“From the original corruption, whereby we 
are utterly indisposed, disabled, or made opposite 
to all good, wholly inclined to all evil.” Again, 
c. xvi. § vii. “Of good works.—Works done by 
unregenerate men,” so runs the article, ‘‘ although 
for the matter of them, they may be things which 
God commands, and of good use both to them- 
selves and others ; yet because they proceed not 
from a heart purified by faith ; nor are done ina 
right manner, according to the word; nor to a 
right end, the glory of God; they are therefore 
sinful and cannot please God, or make a man meet 
to receive grace from God. And yet, the neglect 
of them is more sinful and displeasing to God.” 

The eighth article of the Anglican religion is 
conceived in the same spirit. ‘“‘Of works before 
justification, for that they are not done as God 
hath willed and commanded them to be done, we 
doubt not but they have the nature of sin.” 

“Works done by unregenerate men are sinful.” 
“Yet the neglect of them is displeasing to God.” 
It follows, then, that we displease God by not 
doing “‘ sinful works.” Such is the manifest ab- 
surdity, impiety, and blasphemy of the purified 
Christianity taught by the great ‘‘Gospel Doctors,” 
The best compendium of these wretched tenets is 
the following : 


HUMAN NATTRE, 147 


“You shall and you shan’t, 
You can and you can’t, 
You will and you won't, 
You’ll be damned if you do, 
You'll be damned if you don’t.” 


But we have not yet fully sounded the depths 
of man’s depravity according to the glorious light 
of the Reformation. Not content with making 
all our acts sinful, they attack our very nature, 
substance, and essence, and deprave that also. 
Luther teaches that : 

“It is in the nature of man to sin; sin con- 
stitutes the essence of man ; man, as he is born of 
his father and mother, together with his whole 
nature and essence, is not only a sinner, but sin 
itself.” * 

Melancthon,f and also Matthias Flacius fol- 
lowed their master, Luther, in this matter. And 
Mr. Charles Wesley, in his sermon, ‘‘ The way to 
the Kingdom,” says : 

“ Know that thou art corrupted in every power, 
in every faculty of thy soul, that thou art totally 
corrupted in every one of these, all the foundations 
of being are out of course. ‘The eyes of the under- 
standing are darkened, so that they cannot dis- 
cern God or the things of God.” 


oe Quenstedt. Theo. part ii. p. 134, + Loc. theol., p. 19. 


148 PROTESTANTISM. 


Thus Wesley was true to the genuine spirit 
of Protestantism; believing with its founder, 
Luther, that “the person, the nature, our whole 
being is corrupted by the fall of Adam.” * 

In remarking on this wretched theology, a 
modern author says: ‘‘ What is most desolating 
in this psychological system, is, that this monarch 
of creation is not permitted to raise himself from 
the abyss into which the fall of the first man has 
plunged him ; to efface from his brow the mark 
which the avenging hand of the Creator has 
stamped on it, to recover the titles of his heavenly 
origin. More unhappy than the violet of which 
Luther not long since spoke, man knows himself ; 
he knows all the happiness which he has lost, all 
the misery and ignorance which he retains, and the 
inheritance of glory which has escaped him. A 
few drops of water will renew a flower that droops 
on its stem; but man is doomed to debasement ; 
nothing henceforth can vivify or restore him,— 
neither will, nor thought, nor deed; for these 
mental operations are corrupted like their source, 
and man sins even in doing good. Such was 
Luther’s doctrine, a doctrine of despair, which 
might be understood in hell, where the soul, sur- 
prised in sin, cannot merit; but which, upon 

* Aug. Ausg. xi. p. 375. 


HUMAN NATURE. 149 


earth, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, is only 
an outrage on the Deity.” * 

As one abyss calls unto a deeper, so does one 
error lead to a more serious one. According to 
the Protestant religion, all of man’s thoughts, 
feelings, actions, are depraved ; more, his very 
nature, being, essence, is totally corrupt. But 
not content with this, the Reformers go still fur- 
ther, and endeavor to despoil man of even the 
faculties of his soul, and those too the noblest 
given to him by his Creator—Reason and Free- 
Will. 

The Lutheran confession describes the image 
of God in man as the natural capacity in man to 
know God, to fear Him, and to confide in Him. f 

‘* Man,” so Luther affirms, ‘ lost by sin these 
natural faculties ; he did not remain in his natural 
integrity as the scholastics dream.” { 

Thus does this false religion mutilate our 
nature, and despoil man of his noble and most 
excellent powers, and reduce him to the level of 
the creatures which perish. 

“Tsay,” repeats the German Reformer, “ that 
the spiritual powers are not only corrupted, but 
also, by sin, wholly and altogether effaced, both in 
men and the devils.” § 


* Audin’s Life of Luther, v. 2, p. 71. + Apol. peceat. orig. § 7. 56. 
t In Gen, ¢. iii. § Werke, 1539, i. p. 19. 


150 PROTESTANTISM. 


“The Formulary of Concord” expresses the 
same; it says: ‘that man no longer possesses 
even the least spark of spiritual powers.” 

Victorinus Stringel, a Protestant, asserted 
“that fallen man possesses at least the faculty, 
the capacity, the aptitude to know God, and to 
will what is holy ; although this faculty is com- 
pletely paralyzed, as it were benumbed, and is not 
susceptible of any spontaneous exertion.” + 

But the orthodox party of Protestants con- 
demned him, and affirmed that even the bare 
faculty of knowledge and will,—that mere empty 
form in the soul of man had been destroyed. 

“They are to be repudiated,” so runs “the 
Solid Declaration,” ‘“ who teach that man has yet 
left remaining from his original state any thing 
good, whatever it may be, or however paltry or 
trifling it may be, as for instance : the capacity or 
aptitude, or any powers in spiritual things.” t 
Again: ‘‘The divine image has been utterly 
effaced by original sin, and thereby plucked from 
the posterity of Adam.” § 

Plank, a Protestant, in his History of Protest- 
antism, puts all doubts aside, and admits that 
“‘ Luther gave to the assertion that man no longer 
possesses any will for good, so extensive a sense, 


* p. 629, t Plank. y. iv. p. 584. 
$ Lib. arb. § 44, p. 644. § § 9, p. 614. 


HUMAN NATURE. 151 


that it would thence follow, that man, corrupted 
by original sin, no longer possesses the power of 
will, that is, the faculty of will.” * 

“Had Plank,” says Moehler, “only added, 
‘and no longer possesses the faculty of knowledge 
for the superabundance (for both are included in 
Liberum arbitrium)’, he would then have stated 
with perfect accuracy the Lutheran doctrine. 
Thus,” continues Moehler, “* according to the Lu- 
theran orthodoxy, did man lose, through Adam’s 
fall, the most exalted and most subtle portion of 
his spiritual essence,—the part of his substance 
kindred to divinity,—the implanted organ for 
God, and for divine things inherent in his nature ; 
so that after its loss, he sank down into a mere 
earthly power, having henceforth organs only for 
the finite world, its laws, its ordinances, its rela- 


tions. T 
* Vol. vi. p. 715. + Symbolism, p. 147. 


Sustificution. 


“The soul once saved shall never cease from bliss, 
Nor God lose that He buyeth with his blood. 
She doth not sin. The deeds which look like sin, 
The flesh and the false world, are all to her 
Hallowed and glorified.” 


FESTUS. 

UR intention was not to touch on this point, 

but its close connection with, or rather its 
logical sequence from, what has preceded, and its 
being considered as the central doctrine of Protes- 
tantism, has determined us to devote a few pages 
to its consideration. 

“Without this doctrine of justification by faith 
alone,” says Luther, “the Holy Ghost will not 
abide with us.” * ‘All knowledge of the truth 
will fall to the ground.” + ‘If this doctrine falls, 
all is over with us.” t 


* Jen, Ausg. v. 228. + Walch, Ausg. viii. t Table Talk. 


JUSTIFICATION. 153 


We must not forget what we have already 
learned ;—that according to the Religion of Prot- 
estants, “‘man is wholly depraved,” ‘ corrupted 
even to the very essence and core of his being,” 
‘and has lost every spark of his spiritual faculties.” 

It is a subject worthy of serious consideration 
to every reflecting mind, how such a being can 
become good again, reconciled to God, and inherit 
eternal glory. How this can be brought about, 
consistently with Reason, every body must be’ 
curious to know. The doctrine concerning the 
nature and operation of this change is the one on 
which the whole Protestant religion is reared. 

We must ascend to the fountain source on a 
point of such importance, and once more employ 
‘“‘ The key of the Reformation.” 

“The Justification of a Christian,” says Dr. 
Luther, “‘is not an essential justification, but a 
reputed one.” * 

This has at least in its favor logical consistency. 
For it is inconceivable how a being who is essen- 
tially corrupt can be essentially justified. The 
work of justification must necessarily be not 
essential, for there is no solid foundation, nothing 
good for it to be based upon. It must be a 
foreign, extraneous justification, reputed to man, 

* 1c, 6428. a. 


ate 
rig 


154 PROTESTANTISM. 


not his, but as though it were his own,—a sham 
justification. Luther explains :— 

“Christ has fulfilled the law for us, and we 
haye only to appropriate this to ourselves by faith.” * 

We are again puzzled how one who has not 
left a spark of spiritual powers, can have faith ? 
This too, of course, must be something wholly ex-_ 
trinsic. But let this appropriation be made, it 
does not change the nature of the one who makes 
it. Luther says so :— 

“The faithful, on account of the obedience of 
Christ, are looked upon as just, although, by virtue 
of corrupt nature, they are truly sinners, and 
remain such even unto death.” + 

Man, therefore, according to the religious 
principles of Protestantism, is not justified from 
his sins, but in them; for “ the faithful are truly 
sinners even unto death.” But we are curious to 
know what happens beyond death. 

For the difficulty is not less great in the next 
than in this world, how a being corrupted in its 
very essence can ever be made good, perfect, holy. 
Will Protestants send a depraved, corrupted, alto- 
gether sinful being to heaven to enjoy the presence 
of God ? Yet how can they escape doing this if 
true to their principles P We see not. Rather 

* Walch, Ausg. x. 1461. + Solid. declar. de fide 815. p. 657. 


JUSTIFICATION. - 155 


than give up this essential doctrine of their re- 
ligion, they will send a man ‘‘as black and ugly 
as the devil himself almost, to heaven!” Listen 
to Martin the Reformer. 

‘It is because of Christ that Christians are 
called snow-white, even much purer than the sun, 
the moon, and the stars. But herein we must 
pay great attention, that this purity is not ours, 
but extraneous purity. For the Lord Christ 
adorns and clothes us with his purity and justice. 
However, if you regarded a Christian aside from 
- the purity and justice of Christ, as he is in him- 
self, you would simply see, however holy he might 
be, no purity at all in him ; you would see him as 
black and ugly as the devil himself almost.” * 

If ever there was a religion whose fundamental 
principle was an unreality, it is the religion founded 
by “‘ Luther, this bringer back of men to reality,” + 
as he is called. If ever there was a paradise of 
shams, it is the paradise of Christians who fol- 
low ‘“‘this true spiritual Hero.” { The paradise 
of Mahomet is vastly more attractive than a 
heaven composed of so-called ‘‘ Christians as black 
and ugly as the devil himself almost.” We have 
not, however, reached the end of the absurdities 
of the glorious Reformation—absurdities sufficient 


* Augs, Ausg. viii. p. 548, + Carlyle. ¢ Ibid 


156 PROTESTANTISM. 


to deprive any man who would believe them of 
common sense. 

Having put out the light of Reason in man, 
and concealed his corruption by a cloak, Luther 
endeavors now to blind the Almighty, whose eyes 
are brighter than the sun, and who sees the inmost 
recesses of our hearts. 

‘“‘ God can see no sins in us,” such is his lan- 
guage, “though we were filled with sins, even 
though we were nothing but sin, within and with- 
out, body and soul, from the top of the head to 
the soles of our feet. He sees only the dear, | 
costly blood of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus 
Christ, with which we are sprinkled. For this 
same blood is the golden mantle of grace, with 
which we are clothed, and in which we appear 
before God. Wherefore he cannot, and will not, 
see us other than were we his beloved Son himself, 
full of justice, holiness, and innocence.” * 

Those who can believe in such a God, who can 
accept such a redemption, and adopt such a re- 
ligion, the powers above help them! As for our- 
selves, it is too enormous a tax on credulity. 

The sinner is not only uncleansed from his 
sins, he is even exhorted by this restorer of Chris- 
tianity to continue in them. 


* Augs. Ausg. viii. p. 878. 


JUSTIFICATION. 157 


‘Sin lustily, but be more lusty in faith, and 
rejoice in Christ, who is the conqueror of sin, of 
death, and of the world. Sin we must, so long as 
we remain here. It suffices, that, through the 
riches of the glory of God, we know the Lamb 
which taketh away the sins of the world! from 
Him no sin will sever us, though a million times 
a day we should fornicate, or commit murder.” * 

What must not be the stupidity of those who 
can be made to believe that the promulgation of 
doctrines such as these, was the ‘‘ re-appearance 
of Christianity!” that ‘ Protestantism was the 
emancipation of Reason!” Reappearance rather 
of barbarism, and heathendom! Emancipation 
of “the flesh!” The Protestant Reformation 
was nothing else than the rebellion of the unregu- 
lated passions of man under the guise of the 
emancipation of the human mind. That this is 
no unfair statement of the views of Luther, we 
have his own words for it. Read his definition of 
Christianity. 

** Christianity,” he says, “is nothing else than 
a constant practice of this article that you are not 
sensible of sin, however you may have sinned, 
since your sins adhere, to Christ, who is for all 
eternity a Saviour from sin, death, hell.” + 


* Epist. to Io. Aurifabio, tom. 1; Jena. 1856, p. 545. 
+ Op. Lat. 1c. 


158 PROTESTANTISM. 


Thus under the garb of Christianity license is 
given to every excess of passion, and the commis- 
sion of the worst of crimes. Turks would reject 
with abhorrence such a religion, and the Thugs 
of India, though practising on its principles, would 
blush to avow them in broad daylight. How can 
we account for such doctrines unless we admit, 
with Dr. Johnson, that “ to find a substitution for 
violated morality, was the leading feature in all 
perversions of religion.” * 

Melancthon and Calvin held like opinions. 
The latter says :— 

“The word ‘justification’ signifies the de- 
claring one just, the acquitting ‘him of sins, the 
eternal justice of Christ, which is by God imputed 
to faith.” + Again: ‘‘ We are accounted just in 
Christ, which in ourselves we are not.” t- 

‘This is the same,” says Moehler, ‘“‘ as if any 
one were to purchase a very learned book, and, 
instead of stamping its contents deeply on his 
mind, and in this way appropriating it, so that he 
might become a living book, should hold himself . 
very learned, because the learned book was his 
outward property.” § 

The Protestant Episcopal Church of England 
looks with the same jealous eye on this doctrine as 


* Boswell’s Life. . + Inst. lib. iii. ¢ 11, § 2, fol. 260. tIbid.§ 3. § 212. 


JUSTIFICATION. 159 


“the strong Rock and foundation of the Christian 
religion.” In Art. XI. “Of the Justification 
of man,” it says :— 

“Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith 
only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full 
of comfort.” 

That the founder of Methodism held this same 
most pernicious doctrine, and that it was practised 
on by the early Methodists to an alarming and 
horrid extent, we have seen in the preceding pages. 
And when he was charged with not preaching this 
doctrine, he refutes it by saying: “ Now, do I 
preach that we are justified by faith and works ? 
I did for 10 years: I was fundamentally a papist 
and knew it not. But I do testify to all, that no 
good works can be done before justification, none 
which have not in them the nature of sin.” * 

““ How few,” exclaims Fletcher, another pillar 
of Methodism, ‘ how few of our celebrated pulpits 
are there, where more has not been said for sin 
than against it !” T 

Sir Rowland Hill, another pillar of Methodism, 
maintained that 

‘‘Hiven adultery and murder do not hurt the 
pleasant children, but rather work for their good.” $ 


* Southey’s Life. v. i. p. 141. 
+ Check to Antinom. p. 215. $+ Fletcher’s works, vol. iii. p. 50. 


160 PROTESTANTISM. 


‘“God sees no sin in believers,” says the same, 
‘“‘ whatever sin they may commit. My sins might 
displease God ; my person is always acceptable to 
him. Though I should out-sin Manasses, I should 
not be less a pleasant child, because God always 
views me in Christ. Hence in the midst of adul- 
teries, murders, and incests, he can address me 
with ‘Thou art all fair, my dove, my undefiled ; 
there is no spot in thee.’ Though I believe not 
those who say, ‘ let us sin that grace may abound;’ 
adultery, incest, and murder, shall, upon the 
whole, make me holier on earth, and merrier in 
heaven.” * 

This may seem revolting to our moral senti- 
ments, and no one can deny that it is. And yet 
there is no escape from it on Protestant principles. 
For once admit the doctrine of “‘ total depravity,” 
and the doctrine of “ justification by faith alone,” 
the “imputation of righteousness,” and the “ im- 
possibility of good works,” follow necessarily. 

If the modern professors of Protestant Christi- 
anity pretend to escape these shocking doctrines, 
and their dreadfully immoral issues, they may ; 
but they can only do it by rejecting the funda- 
mental doctrine of the great Reformation ; or, by 
“ stifling their Reason,” as the great lights of the 


* Check to Antinom. vol. iy. p. 97. 


JUSTIFICATION. 161 


Reformation did, and sagaciously recommended 
their followers to do. 

For Reason and Protestantism cannot stand 
together. No one was more convinced of this fact 
than the author of the Reformation ; and it was 
this conviction that led him to send Reason to the 
wall. Modern Protestants, lacking the courage of 
their fearless leader, escape taking this bold posi- 
tion, only by adopting a depraved logic. 


XXII. 


Sectarianism. 


“To hear 
Such wranglings is joy for vulgar minds.” —DAntTE. 


TRANGE as it may seem, yet it is none the 

less true, that not a few regard one of the 
most evident marks of error, and the most destruc- 
tive feature of the religious revolution of the 
sixteenth century, as a sign of truth, as a proof of 
progress, and a title to their gratitude. Were 
this confined to afew or to vulgar minds, it might 
be passed over in silence; but such is not the 
case. There are poets, historians, philosophers, 
literary men, who would have us believe that the 
endless discussions and subdivisions into which 
Protestantism has divided the religious world is a 
cheering sign of life and a benefit to humanity. 


SECTARIANISM. 163 


The poet, out of respect to his rank, shall first 
give in his evidence of this popular hallucination : 


“ God sends his teachers unto every age, 
To every clime, and every race of men ; 
With revelations fitted to their growth 
And shape of mind, nor gives the realms of Truth 
Into the selfish rule of one sole race : 
Therefore each form of worship that hath swayed 
The life of man, and given it to grasp 
The master-key of knowledge, reverence, 
Enfolds some germs of goodness and of right.” * 


The idea conveyed in these lines is that God 
parcels out the truth to men as though they had 
not the capacity to receive it in its integrity. All 
men are integrally, constitutionally, the same ; 
each possessing all the capacities and powers of 
another. What one race knows all races may 
substantially know, and equally so every man of 
the race. Instead of making God the author 
of wrangling creeds, it would be more in accord- 
ance with right and honorable views of God, to 
look for their causes elsewhere. 

Truth leads the mind to take broader views of 
things, and gives to men common sympathies ; it 
is therefore precisely the realm of truth which men 
have need of to free them from the selfish rule of 


* Lowell. 


164 PROTESTANTISM. 


one sole race. The idea that man is not endowed 
with the capacity to receive the whole truth, or 
that God has not given it to him, is as unsound 
in philosophy as it is false to history. 

The historian shall now give his lesson on this 
subject : 

‘“‘ Wherever you see men clustering together to 
form a party, you may,” he says, *‘ be sure that how- 
ever much error may be there, truth is there also.” 

Had the writer of the above stopped his pen 
at this point, he would have remained inside the 
boundaries of sound philosophy. Indeed he has 
enunciated a great truth, and one which, rightly 
understood, overthrows completely the fundamen- 
tal errors of Protestantism. 

For his statement implies that the intellect of 
man cannot operate without the truth. It follows 
that we must either deny to man all rational, 
intellectual life, which is abominable ; or we must 
repudiate the hateful doctrine of total depravity, 
which implies that man has lost all hold on the 
true. 

But the historian did not stop here ; he con- 
tinues, and says : 

‘“‘ Apply this principle boldly ; for it contains 
a lesson of candor and a voice of encouragement. 
There never was a school of philosophy, nor a clan 


SECTARIANISM. 165 


in the realm of opinion, but carried along with it 
some important truth.” Mark now, ingenuous 
reader, what follows: ‘‘ And therefore every sect 
that has ever flourished has benefited Humanity ; 
for the errors of that sect pass away and are for- 
gotten ; its truths are received into the common 
inheritance.” * 

The candor of this lesson we accept most cor- 
dially ; but its voice sounds to our ears, not as one 
of encouragement, but as the saddest kind of dis- 
couragement. It were indeed a sad and gloomy 
prospect for Humanity, if we had to grope about 
in darkness for the truth, and be doomed to 
pick up her scattered limbs, and find of these but 
fragments. It is greatly to be feared that the 
discovery of the fair form of truth would eventuate 
as disastrously as the fabled search which Isis made 
for the mangled body of Osiris. For truth is one, 
and has its source in an eminent unity, and the 
attempt to form the whole body of Truth from its 
scattered limbs, would end in producing a mass 
of fragments, without unity, symmetry, or a life- 
giving principle. The failure would be as certain 
as the effort to form the sun by gathering together 
its scattered beams. 

On the supposition that God has brought men 


* Bancroft’s Miscel. p, 416. 


166 PROTESTANTISM. 


into darkness, or that man is incapable of grasping 
the whole truth at once, the smallest fraction of 
truth discovered is a benefit to Humanity. This 
is. not the lot of man, and the multiplication of 
sects must be regarded, not as a means of increas- 
ing the common inheritance of truth, but rather 
as the decay and destruction of its fair proportions. 

Thomas Carlyle tells us in his usual odd way, 
the same thing. ‘* All isms,” he says, ‘‘ have a 
truth in them, or men would not take them up.” * 

Unmixed error does not exist, and if it did, 
the mind of man could not take it up. His 
statement would be more in accordance with truth 
had he said that all isms have a most pernicious 
he in them, and no man whose mind is not par- 
tially blinded or asleep, would take up with any 
of them, or all put together. Man has divine 
instincts which seek to know the universal truth, 
and crave for the illimitable good, and this is the 
reason why sects are so unsatisfactory, and so 
soon outlived. 

Some of these advocates of sects go so far as 
to look upon the divisions of Protestantism as the 
source of its strength. 

“‘ The truth is,” says the celebrated Dr. Chan- 
ning, “‘ that the divisions of Protestantism go far 


* Heroes. 


SECTARIANISM. 167 


to constitute its strength..... ‘Protestantism, 
by being broken into a great variety of sects, has 
adapted itself to the various modifications of Hu- 
man Nature. Every sect has embodied religion 
in a form suited to a large class of minds. It has 
met some want, answered to some great principle 
of the soul.” * 

The unperverted religious sentiment naturally 
and powerfully yearns after unity. He, therefore, 
who looks upon the isolation of men in their re- 
ligious sympathies as an evidence of strength, is 
like a man who should detect in the process of 
decay of bodies, signs of vigorous life. There is 
life there, but it is that of desolation, destruc- 
tion and death. 

Consistent with right views of Truth and of 
Human Nature, variety of sects should be looked 
upon not as adaptations to its wants, but as the 
marks of a deep-seated uneasiness ; 


“Like a sick wretch 
Who finds no rest upon her down, but oft 
Shifting her side, short respite seeks from pain.” + 


“Sects are essential to freedom and progress,” 
says Dr. Channing. Yes; where error and not 
truth lies at the foundation. JHrror disunites, 


* Works, v. iii., p. 273. + Dante. 


168 PROTESTANTISM. 


isolates, and produces harsh discord ; while truth 
brings men together in bonds of common brother- 
hood, producing love and perfect unity. It isa 
proof of a secret and painful tyranny exercised 
over the mind, and a mark of a radically false re- 
ligion, where freedom and progress can only be 
preserved by hostile sects, and by causing violent 
divisions among men. This thraldom accounts in 
a great measure for the constantly increasing sects 
in Protestant communities ; and explains why the 
great body of intelligent men stand aloof, and look 
with indifference, if not contempt, at the countless 
sects of the Protestant Religion. 

Is not the idea that regards the multiplication 
of contradictions concerning man’s most sacred 
relations and solemn obligations to God himself, 
and his fellow-man, as “ beneficial to Humanity,” 
or “‘ essential to freedom and progress,” the com- 
plete abandonment of the belief in Christianity as 
a Divine Religion ? Is it not to insult our com- 
mon sense, outrage our moral feelings, or to sup- 
pose we have none ? 

How is it that men, otherwise intelligent, 
venture to put forth such glaringly false theories P 
They must be in a most unnatural relation with 
things, to have recourse to such pitiful and con- 
tracted views to sustain their position. A mode- 


SECTARIANISM. 169 


rately sound intellect, with the common instincts 
of Humanity, in its better moments would have, 
even in spite of itself, opened its eyes to see the 
absurdity of these views, and made it feel how 
unworthy they were of God and of Human Na- 
ture. In some such moment, Channing must have 
penned the following most energetic passage :— 
‘“*T am lost in amazement,” he exclaims, ‘‘ at 
the amount of arrogant folly, of self-complacent 
intolerance, of almost incredible blindness, to the 
end and essence of Christianity, which the history 
of sects reveals . . . On sects, and on the spirit 
of sects, I must be allowed to look with grief, 
shame, pity,—lI had almost said, with contempt.” * 
When Religion fails to teach men their true 
relations with God, either because it has no fixed 
doctrines, or does not teach them in such a way 
as to produce conviction, the intellect becomes the 
prey of doubt and despair, and men, instead of 
uniting their activities in one common aim, sepa- 
rate, turn selfish, and are indifferent to their 
future. Art degenerates and becomes fragmentary, 
science lends itself to skepticism, and political 
institutions are made the sport of revolutions. 
This point demands development, but we have 
neither the space, nor leisure, to treat it as its 


* Works, p. 284. 
8 


170 PROTESTANTISM. 


importance requires , the Reader must be satisfied 
with an individual example of its truth, and that 
in the order of art. 

It would be a difficult task to find one whose 
natural gifts of genius were superior to those of 
Goethe. He was born and bred a Protestant, and 
is held up to the world by a class of men as one 
who completed his nature by a beautiful and har- 
monious development of all his faculties. 

With his surprising gifts he seemed to under- 
stand, if he did not always appreciate, the separate 
and isolated views of almost every sect and party. 
But these he never saw in their kindred relations 
with the whole body of truth. He saw witha 
wonderful clearness the scattered rays of truth, 
and is well called, the many-sided Goethe ; but 
he failed to discover the splendid orb from whose 
centre they come forth and depend. He possessed 
in an extraordinary degree the gift of throwing 
himself into the state and feelings of others, and 
expressing those with fidelity ; yet he never suc- 
ceeded in giving to them unity, symmetry, and 
completeness, in forming them into a perfect 
work of art. The most artistically finished pro- 
ductions of Goethe are imitations of the classics ; 
his original ones are fragmentary, disconnected, 


SECTARIANISM. VFI 


incomplete ; for instance, Wilhelm Meister, and 
Faust. 

Goethe’s abilities, breadth of mind and culture, 
have led his admirers to suppose that the creations 
of his own genius were also pure works of art, and 
his critics, not finding them such, fail to satisfy 
these cherished opinions. The admirers of Goethe 
condemn his critics for his deficiencies. 

These deficiencies are not, however, to be at- 
tributed to his genius, but to the discordant and 
irreconcilable elements of his religion. It is Re- 
ligion that reveals to man his inmost being and 
its adequate expression. The image must be 
placed face to face with the original to bring out 
its full meaning, value, and beauty. Manis God’s 
image, and it is the office of Religion to teach 
him his true relations to God. But this task 
Protestantism was unable to accomplish, hence its 
inadequacy to give unity and peace to the mind, 
and elevate the soul to a steady union with the 
first true, good, and fair, its Original. 

How sensible Goethe himself was of this, runs 
all through the tragedy of Faust, and we select 
the following passage as but one of its many ex- 
pressions :— 


172 PROTESTANTISM. 


“Two souls, alas! are lodged in my wild breast, 
Which evermore opposing ways endeavor, 
The one lives only on the joys of time, 
Still to the world with clamp-like organs clinging ; 
The other leaves this earthy dust and slime, 
To fields of sainted sires up-springing.” 


Deprived of the answers and help of the true 
Religion, he was compelled to make one of his 
own. Following one-sidedly the intellect, he ex- 
cluded the sensitive part of man’s nature, by 
adopting the false maxim of Spinoza, that virtue 
was to be practised without any idea of reward or 
merit. Now the appetite for the good is no less 
an essential part of our common nature than the 
desire for the true, or the admiration of the beau- 
tiful. To attempt to exclude it from its legitimate 
action in Religion, or any other sphere of lie, 
must needs end in failure. As one extreme pro- 
duces its opposite, so here, in his practical life, 
Goethe sacrificed his rational nature by following 
one-sidedly the sensitive. Thus, in his theory of 
Religion, he was a purist ; in his practice, an 
epicurean. 

‘“‘Many-sided” Goethe! We accept this 
word applied to him by his admirers, and regard 
it as the severest criticism that could be made on 
one so highly gifted as he was, as a thinker, poet, 


SECTARIANISM. 173 


and religious man. It was only by virtue of his 
various and richly-gifted genius that he escaped 
the common fate of Protestants of becoming one- 
sided. Had he discovered that Religion which, 
in its transcendent and majestic unity, embraces 
all truth, he would have been all-sided. 

What we hold to be the truth in this matter . 
is very simple and easily understood. Briefly it 
is as follows :— 

God has endowed all men with the faculties 
to know all truth nectssary for their happiness 
here and eternal happiness hereafter. All these 
necessary truths God has not failed to make known 
to men, and in such a way that the knowledge of 
them may be easily gained by men of the simplest 
capacity. Consequently, if men differ in regard 
to these truths, it is either because they have 
neglected to employ their faculties, or have not 
employed them rightly. 

These principles commend themselves to all 
men who think justly, and are agreeable to all 
true and honorable ideas of God. At the same 
time they demolish altogether and conclusively 
the arguments of the advocates of sectarianism, 
and refute the speculations of the philosophers of 
narrow-mindedness. 


XX. 


Dhe Aesults. 


“ So after many years in seeming free, 
More closely fettered than at first are we.” 
GOETHE, 


UCH being the fundamental principles of 

Protestant Christianity, it is not to be won- 
dered at that a large class of intelligent minds 
have found it an unsatisfactory Religion. Some 
of this class keep up an outward connection with 
one or the other of its more distinguished sects for 
the sake of the younger members of their families, 
and because it is a part of respectability ; others 
profess a general belief in Christianity, but regard 
all its distinctive doctrines as mere matters of 
opinion. A still larger share stand aloof from all 
forms and sects of Protestantism, adopt in the 
mean time such religious views as accord with the 


THE RESULTS. 175 


truths of Reason, and look forward in hope for a 
Religion which shall welcome the highest aspira- 
tions and be commensurate with the deepest wants 
of their nature. 

What does excite our wonder is not that intel- 
ligent men should detect and repudiate this anti- 
natural religion and spurious Christianity, but that 
they should have suffered this degrading impo- 
sition so long in silence. For he who would re- 
ceive genuine orthodox Protestantism, must begin 
by stifling in his breast the convictions of con- 
science, trample under foot his heaven-born free- 
dom, and put out with his own hands the light of 
his Reason. A genuine Protestant is one who has 
effaced from his soul all vestiges of. the Divine 
image of his Maker, and that in the name of 
Religion ! 

This is no exaggeration, but sacred truth, and 
truth acknowledged and felt to be so by them- 
selves. 

“The natural movements of the soul are re- 
pressed,” says one who knew from experience the 
effects of orthodox Protestant preaching ; “ the 
grace, and ornament, and innocent exhilarations of 
life frowned upon ; and a gloomy, repulsive re- 
ligion is cultivated, which, by way of compensation 
for its privations, claims a monopoly of God’s 


176 PROTESTANTISM. 


favor, abandoning all to his wrath who will not 
assume its own sad livery and echo its own sepul- 
chral tones. Through such exhibitions Religion 
has lost its honor ; and though the most ennobling 
of all sentiments, dilating the soul with vast 
thoughts and unbounded hope, has been thought 
to contract and degrade it.” * 

Speaking of the prevailing theology of his time, 
and its mournful effects, he says: “‘ I know that it 
spreads over minds an unsupportable gloom, that 
it generates a spirit of bondage and fear, that it 
chills the best affections, that it represses virtuous 
efforts, that it sometimes shakes the throne of 
reason. On susceptible minds the influence of 
this system is always to be dreaded. If it be be- 
lieved, I think there is ground for despondency 
bordering on insanity. If I, and my beloved 
friends, and my whole race, have come from the 
hand of our Creator wholly depraved, irresistibly 
propense to all evil and averse to all good—if only 
a portion are chosen to escape from this miserable 
state, and if the rest are to be consigned by the 
Being who gave us our depraved and wretched 
nature, to endless torments in unextinguishable 
flames,—then, too, I think that nothing remains 


: 
° * Dr, Channing’s Works, viii. p. 267. 


THE RESULTS, 177 


but to mourn in anguish of heart ; then existence 
is a curse,—the Creator is 

“OQ my merciful Father! I cannot speak of 
Thee in the language which this system would 
suggest. No! Thou hast been too kind to me to 
deserve this reproach from my lips. Thou hast 
created me to be happy ; Thou callest me to vir- 
tue and piety, because in these consists my felicity ; 
and 'Thou wilt demand nothing from me but what 
Thou givest me ability to perform.” 

To expose the character of this Religion, hostile 
to man’s nature, and which cloaked itself with the 
garb of Evangelical Christianity ; and to induce 
men to throw off its awfully oppressive and de- 
grading servitude, by exciting in them the moral 
sense, by stimulating the consciousness of their 
manhood, and by exalting the dignity of man, 
this was the task of Dr. Channing. His mission, 
therefore, was a great, good, sot noble one ; and 
nobly he performed it. 

Another distinguished writer, speaking from 
the effects of this cruel and most unnatural Re- 
ligion on childhood, says : 

“* Accept the injurious propositions of our early 
catechetical instructions, and even honesty and 
self-denial were but splendid sins, if they did not 


* Dr. Channing’s Works, p. 356. 





4, 
gi 


178 PROTESTANTISM. 


wear the Christian namg. One would rather be a 
Pagan, suckled in a creed outworn, than to be de- 
frauded of his manly right in coming into nature, 
and finding not names and places, not land and 
professions, but even virtue and truth, foreclosed 
and monopolized. You shall not be a man even. 
You shall not own the world. You shall not dare 
to live after the Infinite Law that is in you, 
and in company with the Infinite Beauty which 
heaven and the earth reflects to you in all lovely 
forms ; but you must subordinate your nature to 
Christ’s nature ; you must accept our interpreta- 
tion, and take his portrait as the vulgar draw it.” * 

Such being the influence of the prevailing 
forms of Protestantism, we are not surprised that 
Mr. Emerson, in his earlier writings, is not weary 
in insisting upon ‘‘ Self-reliance,” ‘‘ Be true to 
thyself,” “Act out thyself,’ and maxims of like 
import ; for by following these, men would escape 
the ‘‘injurious impositions of their early cate- 
chetical instructions.” This is no small gain and 
relief. | 

Mr. Emerson’s appeals are the voice of an out- 
raged conscience and an oppressed Reason, claim- 
ing their rights and freedom in tones of manly sin- 
cerity and courage. This attitude excites admira- 


* Emerson, 


THE RESULTS. 179 


tion, and in view of the wretched tenets he was 
taught to believe in his early childhood, one may 
easily overlook the one-sided views, and the exag- 
gerations uttered in protest against them. Certain 
passages in his writings shock all well-regulated 
and genuine religious feeling ; but indulgence may 
even be extended here, for these are only counter- 
statements of greater indignities offered to God by 
a false Christianity.. Honor is due to his boldly 
upholding the worth and dignity of man ; yet it is 
equally a subject of deep regret, that perversion of 
his splendid abilities to the circulation of the 
abominable theories of the German Pantheistical 
atheists. ‘“‘ Our theism,” he says, ‘‘is the purifica- 
tion of the human mind.” “ Religion is nothing 
else than the pious ejaculation of a few imaginative 
men ;” these, and numerous other instances, both 
of poetry and prose, are nothing else than a vain 
repetition of the malignant doctrines of Fichte, 
Hegel, Feuerbach, Proudhon, and men of this 
stamp. Doctrines, too, thank Heaven, which will 
never take root on the virgin soil of America. That 
voice of nature to which he so often appeals, 
would, if listened to, shudder at even their sugges- 
tion. Justly, then, in this regard, we may retort 
on Ralph Waldo Emerson his own appeal: “ Be 
true to thyself,” and Reason will teach thee that 


180 PROTESTANTISM. 


it is unworthy as well as undignified to insult the 
common belief of ages, and shock man’s holiest 
affections. How systematically and sadly must 
that man’s intellectual and moral faculties be per- 
verted, who can look upon the Great Omniscient 
God as only the intuition of himself, and the Holy 
and Eternal Truths of Religion as the simple un- 
folding of human nature! What a twist in the 
faculties, what a distortion of the natural channels 
of thought, for one to take the shadow for the sub- 
stance ! the picture for the original ! 

These extravagant efforts to magnify man, are 
only the natural rebound from the opposite ex- 
treme of his excessive debasement. The genuine 
and more truthful efforts of Mr. Emerson, them 
true Religion must look upon with a friendly eye, 
for they go to create a basis for a future belief. 

Yes! the basis of a future belief; for after you 
have gained self-reliance, and trust in the dictates 
of Reason, what have you then? Religion? By 
no means. You have the foundation for Religion 
to work upon, the instruments needed for its dis- 
covery, but you have not yet Religion. You are in 
possession of those elements without which all 
genuine Religion is impossible * but it remains yet 
for you to find that Religion which is in harmony 
with these, which accords with your mental and 


THE RESULTS. 181 


moral constitution. For, that nature aoes not suf- 
fice nature, itself testifies, as we learned in the 
foregoing chapters. 

True Religion, then, sympathizes, and cannot 
but sympathize, with all those who indignantly re- 
ject as false a Religion which, while it with one 
breath proclaims the right of private judgment, 
denies to man, with the next, the faculty of 
Reason ; while it cries out liberty, refuses to man 
Free-will ; while it professes to have been the 
friend of progress, the means of elevating man- 
kind, declares him essentially and wholly de- 
praved ; while it plumes itself as being a purified 
Gospel, publicly proclaims that man is not called 
upon to keep God’s holy law! The rejection of 
such a Religion is the assertion of Reason, Free- 
will, the worth of Human Nature, the supremacy 
of Virtue ; and is not this a preparation for gen- 
uine Religion, true Christianity ? Not to repu- 
diate such a creed, is an evidence of the truth of 
its debasing tenets, an evidence of the want of 
Reason, Freedom, Virtue, and every quality that 
helps to make a man. 

Men are throwing off the fetters with which . 
this spurious Religion has bound them. 

“The creed of the Puritans,” says the same 
author, “is passing away, and worse arise in its 


182 PROTESTANTISM. 


room. I think no man can go with his thoughts 
about him, into one of our churches, without feel- 
ing, that what hold the public worship had on 
men is gone, or going. It has lost its grasp on 
the affections of the good and the fear of the bad. 
In the country neighborhoods, half parishes are 
signing off,—to use the local term; for the mo- 
tive that holds the last there, is now only a hope 
and a waiting.” 

The only way that Protestantism can hold 
any ground, is by overswaying the mind in early 
childhood by its gloomy fears and merciless threats. 
No man of mature intelligence embraces it, for 
there is no point of agreement between them. 
Protestantism lives in discord, and can progress 
only at the sacrifice of intelligence, manly virtue, 
and true freedom. Hence the youth who have 
escaped from its restraints have no affection for it, 
and the older folks have lost all interest im its 
success. 

“The Church,” continues the same author, 
“or the religious party, is falling from the Church 
nominal, and is appearing in temperance and non- 
resistance societies, in movements of abolitionists 
and socialists, and in very significant assemblies, 
called Sabbath and Bible conventions.”* To 
complete his picture up to the present, he would 


* Lecture p. 14. 


THE RESULTS. 183 


have added, and in circles of table-tippings, rap- 
ping mediums, and free-lovers. 

If more evidence were needed of the wretched 
failure of Protestant Christianity in this country, 
we would refer the reader to a remarkable report 
of five Protestant Episcopal Bishops on a memo- 
rial addressed to their body by some of its most 
distinguished ministers and laymen, which “ pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that the Episcopal Church 
confined to the exercise of her present system, is 
not adequate to do the work of the Lord in this 
land and in this age.” * Among communications 
from their own members there are a few from 
“eminent clergymen of different names.” We 
give a specimen from one entitled, ‘“‘ from a Bap- 
tist divine: ” 

“The present state of the Christian Church, 
and its relation to the world, is anomalous and 
* almost shocking to a Christian. Lspecially is this 
the case in this country. Here is no persecution ; 
the Word of God is open ; ministers more numer- 
ous than in any Protestant country, and working 
ministers than in any papal country, I presume. 
There is nothing visible to prevent the universal 
dominion of Christianity, and what is the result ? 
The number of professors of religion is diminishing 
in all our sects. The churches are coming to a 


Memorial Papers, 1857, p. 28. 


184 PROTESTANTISM. 


stand for want of ministers. There is hardly a 
distinction observable between Christians and 
other men in practice, so far as all the forms of 
worldliness are concerned. The conscience of 
Christiaiis, in too large a proportion of cases, is 
below the average of men who have no guide but 
natural conscience. Let a case arise in which 
Christians and other men come into contact, and 
the Christian will do things which an honorable 
man would despise. 'T’o ask an honorable man of no 
profession to be converted, meaning that he should 
be such a man as many whom he sees professing 
Christianity, would be, frequently, hardly less than 
insulting. Hence infidelity abounds and waxes 
strong. Humanity is rather showing itself out of 
the Church than in it. Men care more for their 
political parties than for the precepts of Christ, 
and on every political question, in Congress and 
out of it, sacrifice one to the other. 

“This is abnormal, Christ and his apostles 
never contemplated it. In twenty or thirty years, 
at the present rate of diminution, the candlestick 
will be removed out of its place..... The 
Church has no conversions, and no hold on the 
masses. ‘lhe most successful church building is 
that which includes the poor by necessity.” ... 
His communication ends with the frank acknow- 


THE RESULTS. 185 


ledgment of the fact that, “ If what we see is all 
Christianity can do, it is a failure.” * 

What has powerfully accelerated the downfall 
of Protestantism in this country, is the antagonism 
which exists between it and the spirit of our insti- 
tutions. The foundations of our political fabric 
do not suppose Reason imbecile, nor human will 
enslaved ; they rest on the maxim of man’s capa- 
bility of self-government, and this presupposes the 
possession and exercise of Reason and Free Will. 
The free institutions of the United States are not 
based on man’s essential depravity, but on his 
essential goodness ; not on the mistrust of Hu- 
man Nature, but on eonfidence in its inborn facul- 
ties and natural instincts ;—so far is that from 
truth which some Protestant divmes would have 
us believe, that ‘‘our political institutions are 
based on too favorable an opinion of human na- 
ture, and therefore, unsustained by Christianity 
they must fall.’ - It is precisely the opposite 
that is true. It is their wretched views of Chris- 
tianity and Human Nature that are going, and in a 
great measure already have gone, by the board. 
For the natural operation of free American insti- 
tutions is to cast off a religion which takes Pro- 
testant views of Human Nature, as hostile to the 
principles and genius of its civilization. 

* Memorial Papers, p. 427-8-9, + Dr. Hawkes. 


186 PROTESTANTISM. 


Leaving now our own shores for awhile, let us 
look abroad where Protestantism is of an older 
growth, that we may become better acquainted 
with its ultimate results. 

“Will it never be understood,” asks a modern 
French writer, “‘ since the day of Luther there is 
no more confession of faith, no more catechism 
possible ? Christianity is nothing more than the 
vision of humanity, as it has been exposed by each 
in his turn, from Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Strauss, 
and in the last place by Feuerbach. This is the 
glory of the Reformation. It has in this respect 
merited well of humanity, and is undertaking 
again the work of Christ, which was already be- 
trayed at the Council of Nice. It surpasses that 
of its author. : 

‘“‘ It was in vain that efforts were made by the 
most unanimous and most solemn declarations, to 
give a body to Protestant ideas ; it was not pos- 
sible in the name of the critical faculty to bind 
the critic ; negation was forced to continue in- 
finitely, and all that was done to assert it was 
condemned beforehand as derogatory to principle, 
as an usurpation of the rights of posterity, as a 
retrograde movement. 

“So the more years rolled on the more theo- 
logians divided among themselves, the more 
churches were multiplied. And it was precisely 


THE RESULTS. 187 


in this that the force and the truth of the Refor- 
mation consisted ; in this was its legitimacy, its 
power of the future... .. The Reformation was 
the fermentation of dissolution. .... After Lu- 
ther a theology was a contradiction. 

“Without doubt it was repugnant to the 
religious conscience, moved by the accents of 
Luther, the most religious man of his age, to 
acknowledge itself anti-Christian and atheistical, 
and it is for this reason that after Luther, and 
even to the present, there is so great a religious 
effervescence. . . . For humanity does not deduce 
with great promptitude its ideas, nor make great 
jumps. 

‘* But what is certain, is that the philosophical, 
political, and religious movement of four centuries, 
in an evident inverse sense, was a symptom, not of 
creation, but of dissolution.” * 

This is not mere theory or speculation. One 
has only to open his eyes and see what passes 
around him. The Protestant of London contra- 
dicts the Protestant of Berlin ; the Protestant of 
Berlin contradicts the Protestant of New York ; 
the Protestant of New York contradicts the Pro- 
testant of Charleston ; the Protestant of Charles- 
ton contradicts the Protestant of Amsterdam ; 
the Protestant of Amsterdam contradicts the 


* Proudhon sur la Socialisme. 


188 PROTESTANTISM. 


Protestant of Wurtemberg ; the Protestant of 
Wurtemberg contradicts the Protestant of Gene- 
va, and thus you may proceed from nation to na- 
tion, from city to city, from town to town, from 
village to village, from one individual Protestant 
to another individual Protestant, and even from 
the same individual in the morning to the same 
individual at night, and to. sum up all their 
contradictions, we have remaining as the answer, 
—nothing. Bayle, long ago, gave a true Protest- 
ant answer to Cardinal Polignac, when asked his 
religion. ‘‘I am,” said he, “a Protestant in the 
full force of the word, for I protest against all 
truth.” 

Let us, before concluding, cast a glance at the 
fruits of Protestantism on its own native soil, 
Germany. 

“Luther, that powerful sapper, with his for- 
midable hatchet, had to proceed to clear the 
way for the champions of philosophy—Leibnitz, 
Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel. The Reformer 
was the point of departure of German _philos- 
ophy.” * 

We have only to refer the reader to the chapter 
on “ German philosophy ” to appreciate the logical 
consequence of Protestant Germany ; but lest we 


* Heyne the poet. 


THE RESULTS. 189 


should pass over too slightly a point of such im- 
portance we will add a few words here which have 
a closer bearing on the religious development of that 
“‘mighty impulse given to the world three centu- 
ries ago.” 

“It is only the believing unbelief of modern 
times,” says a Protestant German writer, in de- 
scribing Protestant Germany, ‘‘ which hides itself 
behind the Bible, and opposes the Biblical dicta 
to dogmatic definitions, in order that it may set 
itself free from the limits of dogma by arbitrary 
exegesis. But faith has already disappeared, when 
the determinate tenets of faith are felt as limita- 
tions. It is only religious indifference under the 
appearance of religion, that makes the Bible, 
which in its nature and origin is indefinite, a 
standard of faith, and under the pretext of believ- 
ing only the essential, retains nothing which de- 
serves the name of faith ; for example, substituting 
for the distinctly characterized Son of God, the 
vague, negative definition of a sinless man, who 
can claim to be the son of God in a sense appli- 
cable to no other being,—in a word, of a man whom 
one may not trust oneself to call either a man or a 
God. But that it is merely indifference which 
makes a hiding place for itself behind the Bible is 
evident from the fact that even what stands in the 


190 PROTESTANTISM. 


Bible, if it contradicts the standpoint of the 
present day, is regarded as not obligatory, or is 
even derided ; nay, actions which are essentially 
Christian, which are the logical consequences of 
faith, such as the separation of believers from 
unbelievers, are now designated as unchristian.” 

And in speaking in the name of modern Pro- 
testantism, he says : ‘‘ We give a true significance 
to baptism only by regarding it as a symbol of the 
value of water itself. Water is the simplest 
means of grace, or healing for the maladies of the 
soul as well as the body. But water is effectual 
only when its use is constant and regular. Bap- 
tism, as a single act, is an altogether useless, 
unmeaning institution, if it is understood to typify 
and celebrate the moral and physical curative 
virtues of water. . . I, in fact, put in the place of 
the barren baptismal water, the beneficent effects 
of real water.” 

‘* But the sacrament of water required,” adds 
this logical offspring of Luther, “a supplement. 
. . . If in water we declare : man can do nothing 
without nature ; by bread and wine we declare: 
nature needs man, as man needs nature. In water, 
human, mental activity is multiplied ; in bread and 
wine, it attains self-satisfaction. If in water we 
adore the pure force of nature, in bread and wine 


THE RESULTS. 191 


we adore the supernatural power of mind. Hence 
this sacrament is only for man- matured into con- 
sciousness, while baptism is imparted to infants. 
Bread and wine typify to us the truth that man 
is the true God and Saviour of men. 

“Eating and drinking is the mystery of the 
Lord’s Supper. Think, therefore, with every 
morsel of bread which relieves thee from the pain 
of hunger, with every draught of wine which 
cheers thy heart, of thy God who confers these 
beneficent gifts upon thee—think of man! But 
in this gratitude towards men, forget not holy 
nature. Forget not that wine is the blood of 
plants, and flour the flesh of plants, which are 
sacrificed for thy well-being. Therefore let bread 
be sacred for us, let wine be sacred, and let also 
water be sacred. Amen.” * 

Practical Christianity, according to the latest 
developments of Protestantism, consists in eating 
and drinking, and bathing. And the best repre- 
sentation of the Protestant Church in the Nine- 
teenth Century which we can imagine, is a cold- 
water-cure establishment with a tavern attached. 

‘“‘ Protestantism,” so says the same writer, 
“has thus restored man in life and practice, in 
morality, to the heathen standpoint, ... and 


* Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity. 


192 PROTESTANTSM. 


not only practically, but theoretically represents 
the total negation of Christianity as Chris- 
tianity.” * 

This is a sad state of things for a religion 
which makes the absurd and lofty pretension of 
being the “‘ Reappearance of Christianity!” The 
picture was drawn by its own disciples, and its 
truth is acknowledged by the candid, even among 
its own ministers. The confessions of one of these 
shall close our account of this total subversion of 
Christianity, under the significant title of ‘‘ Pro- 
testantism.” 

“Oh, Protestantism, has it, then, at last, come 
to this with thee, that thy disciples protest against 
all religion? Facts, which are before the eyes of 
the whole world, declare aloud that this significa- 
tion of thy name is no idle play upon words, 
though I know that this confession will excite a 
flame of indignation against myself.” + 


* Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity, p. 429. 
+ Dr. Jenischuber Gottesverehrung und Kirche, § 210, 


CATHOLITCITY. 


— 





XXII. 


AeUson. 


“Here is the delight 
And here the wisdom which did open lay, 
The path that has been yearned for so long, 
Betwixt the heaven and earth.” 
DANTE. 


OLDLY, as it becomes impartial friends of 

truth, we put to the Catholic Religion, the 
problems of our “‘ Harnest Seeker,” and demand 
what it teaches with respect to the nature, value, 
and dignity of Reason ? 

The method of arriving at sincere and satisfac- 
tory answers to these great questions, is by de- 
termining what the Catholic Church teaches to 
be the effects of Man’s Fall, For we saw in Pro- 


194 CATHOLICITY. 


testantism, and shall sce in Catholicity, that the 
character of the answers to our inquiries depends 
on the doctrines held touching the nature and 
effects of Original Sin. 

The authority of the General Councils of the 
Catholic Church is with its members, beyond all 
dispute. The last of these, and at the same time 
the one which, more than any other, has spoken 
on the question under present consideration, is 
the Council of Trent. This Council, in speaking - 
of the Fall, says :-— 

‘““That the first man, Adam, when he had 
transgressed the commandment of God in paradise, 
immediately lost the holiness and justice wherein 
he was constituted.” * 

Two important questions start up here: In 
what consisted ‘‘ the holiness and justice wherein 
man was constituted ?” ‘What were the effects 
of their “loss?” The reply to these demands 
will bring us our desired answers concerning 
Reason. 

In answering the first, we will premise that 
God created man in the beginning in his own 
image. He formed him of the earth, breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a 
living soul. The Soul was endowed with Reason 


* Sess. v. i. 


REASON. 195 


and Free-Will. By the faculty of Reason man was 
capable of knowing all that was needful for him 
to know ; and by his Will of doing all that was 
required of him to do. Had man been left thus, 
his happiness would have consisted in the know- 
ledge and love of God as the Author of nature. 
He need not have been exempt from hunger and 
thirst, or ignorance, or from the revolt of the pas- 
sions, or from sickness and death. And God could 
have left man in this state, for all these incon- 
veniences spring from the natural union of spirit - 
with matter, and in them there is nothing con- 
trary to God’s infinite perfections. 

But God did not leave man in this state of 
mere nature. He at the same time added the gift 
of integrity. This adorned the Soul with all the 
natural knowledge of which man was capable ; no 
dangerous ignorance, or defect of judgment, tar- 
nished its beauty. The Will was in possession of 
perfect liberty, was upright, and tended to good 
without any inclination to evil. Adam was mas- 
ter of the sensitive appetites, of all the bodily 
movements ; with an equable temperament, al- 
ways tranquil, with no tendency to excess, he en- 
joyed perfect health of body without being subject 
to infirmities and death. 

All these rich gifts, not indeed due to mere 


196 CATHOLICITY. 


human nature, but tending to complete it in its 
own order, were held by Adam on condition of his 
not losing sanctifying grace, which God, at the 
same moment, superadded. 

Sanctifying grace elevated man’s nature to a 
new principle of life and action. It infused into 
his mind and heart a science and virtues which 
transcended altogether the order of nature. Man 
became participator of the Divine Nature, and 
fitted, one day, to enjoy the Beatific Vision, which 
consists in gazing upon God’s own essence. 

Such was the nature of the holiness and justice 
wherein Adam was constituted before he had 
transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise. 

This explained, we come to the second question : 
What was the effect of Adam’s transgression P 

The effect of Adam’s transgression of the com- 
mandment of God in the garden of Paradise, was 
the “immediate loss of the holiness and justice 
wherein he was constituted.” The holiness and 
justice wherein he was constituted consisted in 
the gifts of integrity and sanctifying grace. Con- 
sequently Adam, by the loss of these, was exposed 
to ignorance, to the revolt of the passions, sickness 
and death ; and lost his title, with the virtues 
connected with it, to the Beatific Vision. In 
other words, Adam by his transgression fell from 


REASON. 197 


a state to which he was elevated by the gifts and 
graces of God’s pure bounty upon his mere and 
unadorned nature; 

Original sin, therefore, did not efface the image 
of God stamped upon the Soul. Reason and 
Free-Will remained, their essence unimpaired, 
uncorrupted, uninjured. It did not despoil man 
of any of his merely natural faculties, capacities, 
or powers. All the rights which absolutely be- 
longed to man’s nature, he possessed after the Fall. 
Man, by Original Sin, lost nothing absolutely 
necessary to his nature,—since he.only fell back 
into the simply natural state in which he had been 

originally, or might have been, created. 
Adam’s transgression left in man no positively 
evil quality, depraving the substance of our 
common nature. For there is no sin whatever 
in man’s being exposed to toil and hunger, to 
ignorance and temptations, to sickness and death. 
Consequently, God might have created man’s 
nature in the beginning consistently with his 
divine perfections, as it now exists. For man in 
his natural condition, with the right use of his 
Reason, and the good use of his Free-Will, gra- 
ciously aided as they always are, can attain to the 
great end for which he was divinely appointed. 
It follows also, that those who die in the state in 


198 CATHOLIGITY. 


which we now are born, without actual sin, will 
obtain from the hands of their all-good Creator 
all the -happiness their natural capacities are 
capable of. 

Briefly, man is not, in consequence of the Fall, 
born with essential depravity, or with the loss of 
any of his natural faculties, or with the forfeiture 
of any of his merely natural rights ; what the Fall 
did was to despoil man of the graces and gifts 
which were not necessary to his nature, which he 
had no right to claim, but which were bestowed 
upon him, over and above his mere nature, from 
the pure bounty of his benign Creator. 

This beautifully reconciles the Sacred History 
of Man’s Fall with the first principles of Reason 
and with right and honorable views of God. 

Grant, says one, that man is in full possession 
of his Reason, what can it do? Who knows ? 
We may after all be told in the classic language 
of the great Reformer, that “in religious matters 
Reason is worthless,” ‘‘ Reason is the enemy of all 
Religion,” and “in discussing such matters we 
should leave the jackass at home !” 

Catholicity must give us a definite and explicit 
answer to this question: What can Reason in its 
present condition accomplish ? | 

On two occasions the Catholic Church has 


REASON. 199 


required, as a test of orthodoxy, a subscription to 
the following proposition: ‘‘ Reason can with 
certitude demonstrate the Existence of God, the 
Spirituality of the Soul, and the Liberty of Man.” * 

This is a Catholic authoritative decision ; and 
if we grant to Reason the knowledge of these 
three great truths, we have Reason not as a mere 
abstract and speculative faculty, but Reason in- 
formed and constituted. Grant to Reason the 
knowledge of these important and primal truths, 
and Reason has the ability to deduce from them 
the fundamental principles of Religion, Society, 
and the State. This is important and demands 
development. 

Give to Reason the knowledge of God, and 
Reason is able to deduce from this knowledge the 
principal attributes of God ;—God as the Author 
of the Universe; God as the Upholder of all 
things ; God as the Rewarder of the good and the 
Punisher of the wicked. 

Give to Reason the knowledge of the Spirituality 
of the Soul, and Reason is able to deduce from 
this knowledge the Soul’s future existence, and 
its priceless value, excellence and dignity. 

Give to Reason the knowledge of the Liberty 
of Man, and it is able to deduce from this know- 


* Bautain, 1840.—Bonnetty, 1855, 


200 CATHOLICITY. 


ledge man’s responsibility to his Creator for all his 
actions—religious, moral, social, and political. 

For these deductions flow immediately from 
the preceding primary truths. And no one who 
understands himself, will dispute that Reason is 
competent to draw from primary truths their evi- 
dent conclusions. 

Reason, therefore, rightly exercised, is able to 
know with certainty the great principles which 
underlie Religion, Morals, Social Order, Political 
Economy, and the Rights of Man. According, 
then, to sound Catholic teaching, the great ideas 
and sentiments which constitute the foundations 
of the noble Institutions of human society, are a 
part of the domain of Reason. 

There is no escape from this without destroy- 
ing our title of being rational creatures. For what 
is man when deprived of the knowledge of God ? 
or of the Spirituality of the Soul? or of the Lib- 
erty of the Will? Is he a rational creature, a 
man? Bynomeans. He may look like one, but 
he wants the head and crown of his manhood. 

It is therefore no part of Catholicity to teach 
the worthlessness of Reason, or to disparage its 
noble and sublime efforts. It was by the efforts 
of Reason that the ancient sages and philoso- 
phers, in their better moments, raised their minds 


REASON. 201 ) 


above the visible world, to the First True, the 
First Good, the First Fair, the Creator and Ex- 
emplar of all things, the only true and eternal 
God. Led by the light of this sovereign faculty, 
they discovered many great and most important 
truths, that have made their writings an everlast- 
ing monument of the greatness, grandeur, and 
glory of human genius. This divine gift has in- 
spired, in both ancient and modern times, the 
beautiful works of art, the wonderful discoveries 
of science, and the magnificent inventions of me- 
chanical ingenuity. 

Catholicity, therefore, has the highest apprecia- 
tion of Reason, stimulates its activity, and wel- 
comes with joy its discoveries. “ This most tender 
mother, the Catholic Church, recognizes and justly 
proclaims,” says the reigning sovereign Pontiff, 
“‘ that among the gifts of Heaven, the most distin- 
guished is that of Reason, by means of which we 
raise ourselves above. the senses, and present in 
ourselves a certain image of God. Certainly the 
Church does not condemn the labors of those who 
wish to know the truth, since God has placed in 
human nature the desire of laying hold of the true ; 
nor does she condemn the effort of sound and right 
Reason, by which the mind is cultivated, nature 


O% 


202 CATHOLIGCITY. 


is searched, and her more hidden secrets brought 
todight,”* 

Consequently, the geologist may dig deep down 
into the bowels of the earth till he reaches the in- 
tensest heats ; the naturalist may decompose mat- 
ter, examine with the microscope what escapes 
our unaided observation, and unveil to our aston- 
ished gaze the secrets of nature ; the astronomer 
may multiply his lenses till his ken reaches the 
empyrean heights of heaven ; the historian may 
consult the annals of nations, and unriddle the 
hieroglyphics of the monuments of bygone ages ; 
the moralist may expose the most delicate folds of 
the human heart, and probe it to its very core ; 
the philosopher may, with his critical faculty, ob- 
serve and define the laws which govern man’s 
sovereign Reason ; and Catholicity is not alarmed ! 
Catholicity invokes, encourages, solicits your bold- 
est efforts; for at the end of all your earnest 
researches, you wil find that the fruit of your 
labors confirm her teachings, and that your gen- 
uine discoveries add new gems to the crown of 
truth which encircles her heaven-inspired brow. 

Our indulgent readers will not be displeased 
if we relate an example illustrative of this truth. 

Professor H. was distinguished for his research- 


* Pius LX, Letter to the Bishops of Austria, 1856. 


REASON, 203 


es and discoveries in the field of Natural History. 
For these his writings merited translation and 
publication in France. One of his discoveries was 
that of a family of animalcule. One day, obsery- 
ing these by the aid of a microscope, and with 
more than usual attention, he perceived that they 
had a perfect system of an organized government. 
There was a chief, with subordinate officers, each 
having his own duties to perform, and all acting 
in unison and perfect order. 

This unexpected discovery surprised the Pro- 
fessor, and led him to turn his observation abroad 
upon the wide field of nature. Livery where, to 
his satisfaction, he found the same unity, the same 
laws, the same harmony, the same form of govern- 
ment, from the meanest floweret or insect to the 
vast planetary systems of worlds. A thought oc- 
curred to him at this moment, whether this uni- 
versal form of government, found in all nature, 
was not a stamp and similitude of nature’s Author; 
and whether, if God had made known his will to 
his rational creatures, he would not display the 
same laws, the same government, but only in a 
higher and more perfect form. 

Now, this was no small stride for our Professor 
to make, for the truth is, he was bred a Protestant, 
and on arriving at the age when men are accus- 


204. CATHOLIGCITY. 


tomed to do their own thinking, he found that this 
religion neither answered his Reason nor satisfied 
his conscience. He therefore abandoned the reli- 
gion of the Sixteenth century, began to read the 
works of French philosophers, gave up all ideas of 
Christianity, and ended in becoming a Deist. 

What now ? After having discovered this law 
running through all nature, his curiosity was ex- 
cited to see whether he could find it in any one of 
the prevailing systems of religious belief. Of the 
dissensions and degrading doctrines of Protestant- 
ism, he knew sufficient from his own experience. 
There was no way left but to examine Catholicity. 
His acquaintance with the Catholic Church was 
very slight, and no priest residing in his village, on 
inquiry he found a Catholic in the place who was 
prepared to give him the information he desired. 
The Professor was gratified to find in the Catholic 
Church the same organization, the same laws, the 
same form of government which he had found in 
all nature. His conclusion was that the Catholic 
religion had for its author the great Author of all 
nature and of the vast universe. 

What next? Toosincere not to acknowledge 
the truth when known, too earnest not to be faith- 
ful to the light he had received and his convictions, 
our Professor starts for the metropolis, to have an 


REASON. © 205 


interview with the Catholic Bishop. He intro- 
duces himself to the Bishop as Mr. H. On taking 
a chair, it occurs to the mind of the Bishop that 
the gentleman’s name was the same as that of a 
celebrated professor of Natural History, and he 
put the question, whether he was that Professor. 
Modest, like all truly learned men, he replied, 
‘“‘ Sometimes persons call me so.” But he contin- 
ued under feelings of excitement because of the 
important nature of his visit, and, addressing the 
Bishop, he asked him if he had any reasons why 
he should not become a Catholic. The Bishop 
was not a little startled at such a question, and 
replied in his usual bland and winning way: 
“Why, Professor, I have no reasons why you 
should not become a Catholic, but many and 
every reason why you should.” Understanding 
the purpose of the Professor’s visit, and curious to 
know what had turned his attention to the Catho- 
lic Church, the Bishop asked him, before going 
further, what it was that first directed his thoughts 
to Catholicity ? ‘Bugs! bugs! bugs!” replied 
the Professor, quickly. | 
“Bugs!” repeated the astonished prelate. 
“What have these to do with the truth of the 
Catholic religion?” Thereupon the Professor 
related the facts which we have just narrated, 


7 


206 CATHOLICITY. 


and the Bishop found them satisfactory as well 
as amusing. In due time the Professor became 
a member of that Church whose doctrines are 
consonant with the dictates of Reason, 


‘‘ Whose proofs are every where. 
Whate’er we hear or see, whate’er doth lie 
Round us in nature: all that the structure of 
Science, or in Art, hath found or wrought.” * 


* De Vere. 


XXIV. 


ROvsow. 


“Sure, He that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before, and after, gave us not 
That capability and godlike Reason 
To fust in us unused.” 
SHAKSPEARE, 


CCORDING to Catholicity, then, man was 

not deprived by the fall of Adam, of Reason, 
nor did it render Reason worthless, for it is still 
in possession of certain great truths, upon the 
knowledge of which our claim of being rational 
creatures, and the institutions of civilized society, 
depend. 

There may be some desirous to push their 
inquiries still further, and who might ask: What 
is the precise value of Reason, face to face, with 
the truths of Religion? Do Reason and the 


208 CATHOLICITY. 


Catholic Religion stand as in the case of Protes- 
tantism, in hostile attitude towards each other ? 
Does Catholicity look with an unfavorable eye on 
the application of Reason to the heaven-inspired 
truths of Religion ? 

The Catholic Religion teaches that the exer- 
cise of Reason necessarily precedes the acceptance 
of the truths of Religion, and that it is an obliga- 
tion laid upon Reason to inquire diligently, and 
to be certain that those truths which are proposed 
to its belief, have God for their Author, before it 
gives its assent. » 

Subscription to the following proposition has 
repeatedly been required of Catholics, whose pub- 
lished opinions seemed to undervalue Reason in 
the interests of faith. It runs thus :— 

““The exercise of Reason precedes faith, and, 
with the aid of revelation and grace, leads to 
faith.” * 

Before an act of faith can be made, Reason 
must apprehend what is proposed for belief; this 
is one exercise of Reason. And, after this appre- 
hension, the examination, if the evidence of what 
is proposed for belief was truly revealed by God, 
is another exercise of Reason. Faith, therefore, is 
not an act contrary to Reason, nor independent 


* Abbé Bautain, 1840.—A. Bonnetty, 1856. 


REASON. 209 


of it ; but in strict accordance with its laws, and 
wholly impossible unless preceded by its exercise. 

They err greatly, therefore, who imagine that 
“Catholics have no right, on their principles, to 
address Reason at all on the subject of Religion.” 
They are equally ignorant of the nature of genuine 
faith, and attribute to Catholicity the errors and 
absurdities of Protestantism, which she in times 
long gone by, exposed, refuted, and publicly con- 
demned. 

Faith, therefore, is an act which begins in the 
intelligence, calls forth its exercise, and cannot 
take place unless on reasonable, certain, and suf- 
ficient grounds. Once more, earnest inquirer, give 
ear to the Visible Head of the Catholic Church, 
instructing ‘‘ the Patriarchs, Primates, Arch- 
bishops and Bishops of the Catholic world,’ on 
this most important point. 

“Lest human Reason should be deceived in a 
matter of so great moment, it behooves it to inquire 
diligently concerning Divine Revelation, in order 
that it may be made certain that God has spoken, 
and also in order that it may exercise, according 
to the most wise teaching of the Apostles, a 
-freasonable obedience.’ Who is ignorant that it 
is our duty to place all our faith in God when He 
speaks, and that nothing is more consonant with 

3% 


210 CATHOLIOCITY. 


Reason than to give its assent, and firmly adhere 
to those things of which it has been made certain 
that they have been revealed by God, who cannot 
be deceived or deceive.” 

They make equally a great mistake who sup- 
pose that “the Catholic Church exacts a blind 
and inconsiderate obedience to her teachings.” The 
Church is fully aware that no other than a “ rea- 
sonable obedience” is worthy of a rational crea- 
ture, and acceptable to his Creator. A practical 
illustration will make this point plain. 

What are the preparatory steps to be taken in 
order to be received into the fold of the Catholic 
Church? In the first place, the candidate is ex- 
amined to discover whether he knows what are 
the important doctrines of the Catholic Religion. 
If these be distinctly known, then it is required to 
be known also on what precise grounds these 
truths are proposed for belief. Is there a defi- 
ciency of knowledge in this respect, the reception is 
delayed, instructions are imparted, until the truths 
proposed for belief are well known, and the mind 
is without any doubt of their having been revealed 
by God. Christianity is a Religion addressed to 
man’s intelligence and moral nature, and only an 
enlightened and free assent to its divine truths, 
can make Christians. As long as there remains a 


* Encyc. 1846. 


REASON. o1t 


‘doubt on the mind, no one can become a Catholic, 
for Christian faith excludes even the shadow of a 
doubt. Equally jealous of the rights of Reason 
and the homage due to the Divine Truths confided 
to her care by her Divine Founder, the Catholic 
Church accepts no other than a “reasonable 
obedience.” 

Any one who knows how members are received 
among the Protestant sects, knows full well what 
indifference is shown to enlightening the Reason 
in regard to the great truths of the Christian Re- 
ligion. for the most part, little or no pains are 
taken to discover what the candidates believe, or 
on what grounds their belief rests. Many are 
received without even once reading their formulas 
of faith ; among others who have no such formulas, 
a vague notion of Christianity, and an irrational 
confidence, answer for rational convictions and 
the reverence due to its great and solemn truths. 
Among some of the more popular sects of Protest- 
antism, the reception of Christianity is a sheer 
piece of fanaticism, for it takes place at a time 
when Reason is drowned by a wild and extrava- 
gant excitement of the passions. | 

‘A gilded pill!” some one may, in the way 
of an objection, exclaim. “‘ Once admit the autho- 
rity of the Roman Church, and you will be forced 


Pa bY CATHOLIOCITY. 


to assent blindly to whatever she teaches, and, 
with its overpowering weight, it will stultify your 
intelligence, and crush from the mind all free 
thought.” 

Patience ! good Reader, and do not lay to our 
charge the desire to raise objections in order to 
display a vain skill in their refutation. Sincerely, 
these are not our objections ; every one is taken, 
not out of our own imagination, or from fusty old 
books, but word for word, from living authorities 
antagonistic to Catholicity. We bespeak a little 
indulgence. 

Men’s minds must be strangely disordered to 
see in others only their own special miseries ; to 
charge upon others what is but their own wretch- 
edness, while they, with a peculiar self-compla- 
cency, imagine themselves happy ! 

If Protestantism emancipates the intelligence 
and gives place to free thought, why is it that the 
most intellectually gifted and independent minds 
of the age cast off Protestantism and embrace 
Catholicity ? As an illustration, we have only to 
cite of Germany such names as Hallar, Phillips, 
Hurter ; or, of England,—Newman, Allies, Wil- 
berforce ; or, of America,—Brownson, Haldeman, 
Anderson. Is it at all likely, is it reasonable’ to 
suppose, that men of this order of mind, of this 


REASON, 213 


temper, and who were born and bred under the 
glorious emancipation and freedom afforded by 
Protestantism, should, with their eyes open, em- 
brace and continue in a Religion whose influence 
benumbs our intellectual faculties, and whose 
authority crushes out all free thought ? Regard- 
ing this matter from a rational point of view, 
there is a good deal more reason to believe that 
these men, with a large body of converts to the 
Catholic Religion, became Catholics in order to 
emancipate their Reason from the violent thraldom 
exercised over it by Protestantism. 

The testimony of one whose courage as Pro- 
testant, or as Catholic, never faltered to express 
the honest convictions of his mind, or its freest 
thoughts, are here in point. 

“The struggle between faith and Reason is 
something wholly foreign to the Catholic mind,” 
and ten years’ experience of the Catholic religion 
gave him the right to.say so. ‘‘ And the real 
Catholic,” he continues, “ finds it hard, unless he 
has been bred a Protestant, even to conceive of it, 
because Catholicity, though it requires us to do 
violence to the flesh, never requires us to do vio- 
lence to Reason. Catholicity is not rationalistic, 
but it is a rational religion, and at every step sat- 
isfies the demands of the most rigid Reason. We 


914 CATHOLICITY. 


were told so befure we came into the Church, but 
we could hardly believe it ; and even when we were 
permitted to enter, we did not doubt but we 
should still find something of that interior struggle 
between faith and Reason, which had rendered us 
so miserable as a Protestant, so hard is it for a 
Protestant mind to conceive the possibility of per- 
fect harmony between faith in the supernatural 
and the dictates of Reason. We have not thus 
far been troubled with any struggles of this sort, 
and we are unable to conceive how as long as we 
remain Catholics we can be, because in Catholicity 
all has a sufficient reason, is sure to have a pur- 
pose worthy of itself, and nothing is required to be 
believed but on adequate authority, and thus the 
demands of the highest Reason is satisfied.” * 
““The truth is,’ says another illustrious con- 
vert to the Catholic Church, “that the world, 
knowing nothing of the blessings of the Catholic 
faith, and prophesying nothing but ill concerning 
it, fancies that a convert, after the first fervor is 
over, feels nothing but disappointment, weariness, 
and offence in his new religion, and is secrectly de- 
sirous of retracing his steps... . That there can 
be peace and joy, and knowledge and freedom, and 
spiritual strength in the Church, is a thought far 


* O, A. Brownson. Review, 1858. 


REASON, 215 


beyond its imagination ; for it regards her simply 
as a frightful conspiracy against the happiness of 
man, seducing her victims by specious professions, 
and, when they are once hers, caring nothing for 
the misery which breaks upon them, so that by 
any means she may detain them in bondage. Ac- 
cordingly it conceives we are in perpetual warfare 
with our Reason, fierce objections ever rising, and 
we forcibly repressing them. ... It fancies that 
the Reason is ever rebelling like the flesh ; that 
doubt, like concupiscence, is elicited by every sight 
and sound, and the temptation insinuates itself in 
every page of letter-press, and through the very 
voice of a Protestant polemic. But, my dear 
brethren, if these are your thoughts, you are sim- 
ply in error. Trust me, rather than the world, 
when I tell you that it is no difficult thing for a 
Catholic to believe ; and that unless he grievously 
mismanages himself, the difficult thing is for him 
to doubt. He has received a gift which makes 
faith easy ; it is not without an effort, a miserable 
effort, that any one who has received that gift 
unlearns to believe. He does violence to his mind, 
not in exercising, but in withholding faith.” * 
Thus the groundless charges against Catho- 
licity are thrown back and fastened upon their 


* Newman’s Discourses to Mixed Congregations; Dis. xi. 


216 CATHOLIGITY. 


authors, and they cannot, with their utmost skill 
and ingenuity, clear themselves of them. 

The idea of Reason being fettered, or its 
activity diminished, by the Christian faith, never 
enters the Catholic mind. Thisisalso evident from 
the pages of history. The antagonism between 
Reason and faith is nowhere found among the 
Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church. They 
regarded Reason and Christianity as existing in a 
most beautiful accord. The scholastics were so 
far from the thought of contradiction between 
Reason and Revelation that they endeavored to 
construct an entire defence of Christianity on the 
basis of Reason. It was the lights of the Refor- 
mation who first broached the idea of an hostility 
between Reason and Christianity ; and they did 
this partly out of hostility to the scholastics, and 
still more in consequence of their irrational expo- 
sition of the nature and effects of original sin, in 
which some denied to man even the faculty of 
Reason, and others, whatever of Reason they left 
to him, as an inheritance, taught that it was at 
enmity with God and Religion. 

It is not only a fact of Catholic experience 
confirmed by the history of the Church, that 
Catholicity fortifies Reason, enlarges its horizon, 
and elevates its vision, but the relations existing 
between the truths of Reason and the transcendent 


REASON. O17 


truths of Revelation, as taught by the Catholic 
Religion, prove that this must in the nature of 
things be so. 

When Reason has once made itself certain of 
the evidence of a Divine Revelation, it then 
appropriates the truths which this reveals by its 
assent, and exercises its powers on them. For 
although the mysteries of Religion are beyond our 
powers of explanation, yet they each present, more 
or less, an intelligible side to our natural Reason. 
And so far as they are intelligible, Reason may 
exercise itself most profitably in tracing out their 
harmony with its dictates ; their influence on the 
minds and hearts of men, and on society ; and, by 
devoutly meditating on them, it may penetrate 
farther into their meaning, bring out their hidden 
analogy with other truths, and clothe itself with 
their transcendent beauty. 

It was this research of the relations of Nature 
and the truths of Reason to Revealed Truths, that 
occupied the master minds of Sacred Science. 
And this research of Reason the Catholic Religion 
always has encouraged and sanctioned. 

This will be placed beyond all doubt by the 
following citation of the same Encyclical Letter of 
Pius IX., quoted on pages 209-210. Speaking of 
those men “ who arrogate to themselves the name 

10 


218 CATHOLICITY. 


of philosophers, and prate about faith gainsaying 
Reason,” he says : 

“It is certain that there is nothing more fool- 
ish, nothing more impious, and that nothing more 
contrary to Reason can be imagined or thought of, 
than the opinion which supposes that the Christian 
faith gainsays Reason. Although faith is above 
Reason, nevertheless no discord, no opposition can 
ever be found betwixt them, since both faith and 
Reason spring from one and the same unchange- 
able and eternal fountain of truth, the Almighty 
and Eternal God ; and therefore, they afford mu- 
tual help to each other, so that right Reason dem- 
onstrates, upholds, and defends faith ; and faith 
on the other hand emancipates Reason from all er- 
rors, wonderfully enlightens, confirms, and perfects 
Reason with the knowledge of Divine Things.” * 

Catholicity, therefore, regards Reason and 
Truth as twin sisters born of the one primal source 
of all ight. Faith with its supernal light mingles 
its beams with those of Reason, solves the dark 
enigmas which tormented its existence, and opens 
to it the only path to its divine destination. 


*¢ Faith’s virtue to our vision knits; and thus 
Supported, lifts us above ourselves, 
That on the sovereign essence which it wells from, 
We have the power to gaze.” + 


* Encyo, 1846. + Dante, 


XXV. 


Free-Will, 


“Supreme of gifts, which God, creating, gave 
Of his free bounty, sign most evident 
Of goodness, and in His account most prized, 
Was liberty of will; the boon wherewith 
All intellectual creatures, and them sole 
He hath endowed.” 


DANTE. 

HE teaching of the Catholic Religion in regard 
to Free-Will, is already sufficiently explained 
when we consider that Reason implies the free- 
dom of the Will. For the simple faculty to know, 
or the knowledge of first principles, does not 
suffice to constitute man a reasonable being ; he 
needs for that also the liberty of choice. As then 
Free- Will is a constituent part of man’s rational 
nature, and this being fully explained in the pre- 
ceding chapter, it is not necessary to enter at large 

on this point of our present inquiry. - 


22.0 CATHOLICITY. 


In the teaching of the Catholic Church on this 
subject, we shall find the same concert and har- 
mony between Free-Will and Grace, as we did 
between Reason and Faith. For as Revelation 
supposes Reason, so does Grace suppose Free- 
Will. And as Reason is able, by the exercise of 
its natural abilities, to gain the knowledge of cer- 
tain great and primary truths, so is the Free- Will 
able by its exertions to practise certain noble and 
even heroic virtues. 

Let us then, as our first step, establish the 
fact that the Catholic doctrine teaches that man 
is in possession of Free-Will. In the sixth Session 
of the Council of Trent will be found the follow- 
ing :— 

“Tf any one saith, that since Adam’s sin, the 
Free-Will of man is lost and extinguished ; or, 
that it is a thing without a reality, a figment, in 
fine, introduced into the Church by Satan, let him 
be anathema.” * 

Cathclicity, in claiming for man the possession 
of Free-Will and condemning the errors of Prot- 
estantism, proves herself to be the upholder of the 
dignity of human nature, the friend of liberty, and 
the defender of the rights of man. For without 
Free-Will, liberty is impossible, there is no such 


* Canon y. 


FREE~WILUL. | 921 


thing as rights, and man becomes the passive in- 
strument of an irresistible and impenetrable des- 
tiny. Would men but open their eyes to truth, 
they would discover that the anathemas of the 
Catholic Church were never pronounced except 
against the most pernicious and detestable errors ; 
errors subversive of all rational religion, inimical 
to good morals, destructive to society, and detri- 
mental to man’s best interests. It will be also | 
found, that her decisions tend to the greatest 
glory and honor of Almighty God, confirm and 
sustain the highest appreciations of man’s nature, 
and are favorable to the greatest happiness of the 
human race. 

Holding to the fact that man is in possession 
of this freedom of his will, the Catholic Church 
must necessarily teach that man possesses the 
ability to practise virtue, and is responsible for 
his actions. Let us confirm this statement. 

In the decrees of the Council of Trent we find 
the following, which touches on the point now 
under consideration :— . 

“ Although Free- Will, attenuated and inclined 
as it was in its powers (by original sin), was by 
no means extinguished.” * 7 

Now how are these words, “attenuated and 


* Sess. vi. 


222, CATHOLIGITY. 


inclined,” in relation to man’s will, to be under- 
stood ? Evidently they are to be understood in 
the same sense that “the loss of justice and holi- 
ness ” were understood in regard to Reason. They 
are to be understood not as conveying the idea 
that man’s will, by original sin, was “ attenuated 
and inclined” from what it was in his supposed 
state of mere nature, but “attenuated and in- 
clined” in view of the state to which he was ele- 
vated by the gifts and graces bestowed on him 
over and above his essential nature. 

This is confirmed by the fact that in the first 
draft of this decree, the word ‘‘ wounded” was 
struck out, and the words above put in its place, 
in order not to convey the idea of man’s nature 
having suffered by original sin any thing more 
than the loss of the gratuitous graces and gifts 
bestowed on it. And it is in this view the words 
“injured,” ‘‘ wounded,” ‘‘ deteriorated,” and such 
like expressions should be understood when used 
in speaking of the effects of the fall of Adam. 

This becomes more evident from the following 
propositions among the forty-one errors of Luther, 
condemned by Pope Leo the Tenth, 1520. The 
thirty-sixth runs thus :— 

“Free-Will after sin is a thing with only a 
name ; and when it does all that it can, it sins 

mortally.” 


FREE-WILL. 223 


Tt is still more evident from the following 
propositions of Baius, condemned by Saint Pius V. 

“Free-Will, without the grace of God, is able 
to do nothing but sin.” 

“* All the works of unbelievers are sins, and the 
virtues of the philosophers are vices.” 

‘* He agrees with Pelagius, who acknowledges 
any good, that is, any good that takes its rise 
from the sole powers of nature.” * 

It follows plainly, from the condemnation of 
these propositions by the Pontiffs of the Catholic 
Church, that she holds in just abhorrence the 
errors which they inculcate. It is also evident 
that she teaches that “ human nature is not alto- 
gether good for nothing,” but has the power to do 
good, to practise virtue, and hence man is respon- 
sible for his actions and conduct. 

In upholding the truth of man’s possessing 
this “‘ supreme of gifts, liberty of will,” her voice, 
as ever, is consonant with the inmost voice of the 
consciousness of every man’s breast, which is thus 
expressed by the great poet of Christian faith :— 


“Ye have that virtue in you, whose just voice 
Uttereth counsel, and whose word should keep . 
The threshold of assent. Here is the source, 
Whence cause of merit in you is derived ; 


* Baius. 


224. CATHOLIGCITY. 


E’en as the affections, good or ill, she takes, 

Or severs, winnow’d as the chaff. Those men 

Who reasoning, went to depth profoundest, mark’d 
That innate freedom ; and were thence induced 

To leave their moral teachings to the world.’’* 


The doctrine of Catholicity, on the Free-Will 
of man, gives the basis for all laws, all legislation, 
and for the whole structure of human society. 
Whereas, let the doctrines of that creed hostile to 
Catholicity, called Protestantism, be followed but 
for a moment, and the whole of society would be 
overthrown from its foundations ; the support of 
every authority would be undermined ; and the 
fountains of all personal, social, political, moral, 
and religious virtue would be dried up. Not only 
does every man owe to Catholicity a debt of grati- 
tude for upholding the dignity of his nature, but 
society owes to the Catholic defence of man’s’ lib- 
erty of Will, its existence, its civilization, and 
preservation. 

A Catholic may, consistently with his religion, 
claim the virtues, the deeds of self-sacrifice, and 
acts of exalted heroism of every nation, of every 
clime, of every religion, as a part of the inheritance 
of humanity. His religion extends his sympathies 
and enlarges his heart, by identifying his nature 


* Dante, 


FREE-WILL. 925 


with all that is great, noble, and grand in the 
history of the race. His vofce, to use the language 
of St. Augustine, may “join with the shepherds on 
the mountains, the poets in the theatres, the un- 
learned in the circuses, the learned in their libra- 
ries, the masters in the schools, the priests in the 
temples, and the human race over the whole 
world, in proclaiming that man is endowed by his 
Creator with the noble gift of Liberty of Will.” 


10% 


XXVI. 


Human Aature. 


“In Catholicity all is placed in evident relations with Human Nature 
and the history of the Universe.” 
Dr MAIstTRE. 


N treating of the relations ‘of Catholicity to 

Human Nature, we should keep in mind the 
doctrines taught on the same subject by Protest- 
antism. 

Orthodox Protestantism teaches that Human 
Nature is in its very essence wholly corrupt, so 
that man can think nothing but evil, can love 
nothing but evil, and can do nothing but evil. 

But what is evil? ‘ Evil,” to take Webster’s 
definition, ‘‘is a deviation of a moral agent from 
the rules of conduct prescribed to him by God.” 

Evil then, is the voluntary deviation from 


HUMAN NATURE. 097 


God’s law. Evil is not, therefore, a substance, a 
being, or an existence, but a mode of existence. 
—Livil is the perversion of being or existence. 

Existence cannot be conceived otherwise than 
as good, without outraging the divine perfections 
of the Creator. For God, and He alone, is the 
Author of all real existences. To think of the 
essence of our being, or existence, as wholly cor- 
rupt, or evil, or evil at all, is to make God the 
Author of that which is contrary to his Nature. 

Man is, and can but be, essentially good ; and 
the doctrine of essential, or total depravity, taught 
by Protestantism, makes God the Author of evil. 

A Free Agent may violate the laws of his be- 
ing, and pervert habitually its activities, but these 
remain, and ever will remain unimpaired in their 
essence. Satan is a fallen Angel, but still an 
Angel. 

Man therefore is essentially good ; endowed 
with Reason, whose object is truth; and with 
Free Will, whose object is the good. Reason 
seeks only to know the true ; Free-Will only rel- 
ishes the good. If Reason embraces error, it is 
always under the appearance of truth; if Free- 
Will relishes evil, it is always under the appear- 
ance of good. 

Man is good in possession of all his faculties, 


228 CATHOLIOCITY. 


which retain all their natural power to act in ac- 
cordance with the great end of his being. 

Religion, therefore, must regard man as an in- 
tellizent and moral. being, and act in accordance 
with the laws of his mental and moral constitu- 
tion, The structure of Religion must find its 
foundations in the indestructible elements of Hu- 
man Nature. 

If the Catholic Religion be consistent with her 
own principles, she must presuppose Human Na- 
ture in all her operations ; accept all its normal 
instincts ; and adapt herself to its various neces- 
sities. 

The attitude of the Catholic Religion towards 
Human Nature may be seen and appreciated from 
the following fact of Kcclesiastical History. On 
the conversion of the English people to Christian- 
ity by Saint Augustine, the question arose, what 
was to be done with the Pagan Temples? The 
point was referred to the Sovereign Pontiff, whose 
reply was as follows : 

“The Temples of the gods are not to be de- 
stroyed, but to be cleared of their idols, purified 
with holy water, adorned with altars enclosing 
relics of God’s Saints. For if the Temples were 
well-built, they ought to be consecrated as houses 
of prayer of the true God, in order that the people, 


HUMAN NATURE. 229 


seeing their old Temples reclaimed, may lay off 
their errors with all their hearts, and acknowledge 
and pray to the true God, and attend so much the 
readier at their old places of Worship.” * 

The Catholic Religion treats in the same man- 
ner Human Nature. Human Nature is well- 
built, and consequently not to be destroyed, but 
rectified, blessed, adorned with celestial virtues, 
and consecrated to the service of the true, living 
God. On the same principle the Catholic Church 
has changed several of the pagan orgies into Chris- 
tian festivities. Just as we find paintings of 
Orpheus playing on his lyre, and charming there- 
with the birds and beasts of the forest, in the 
chapels of the early Christians in the Catacombs. 
For they saw in this a truth illustrative of our 
Lord, who by. the gracious words that flowed from 
His lips, softened the hard hearts of sinners, and 
brought together into one fold a people drawn 
from among all the nations of the world, For 
the instinct of worship is natural to man; Pagan- 
ism perverted it ; and Christianity rectified it by 
directing it to its true object. 

Thus Catholicity embraces all the human 
mind, accepts every truth, and welcomes all the 
instincts of our nature, for being conscious of their 


* Bede i. p. 27. t Northcote’s Roman Catacombs. 


230 CATHOLICITY. 


divine origin, she knows full well that these can- 
not but tend to increase her honor and beauty, 
and the glory of God. 

How can it be otherwise, for Religion without 
the instincts and activities of Human Nature, 
would be a baseless fabric, a mere dream. Since 
Human Nature serves to Religion as the stock 
does to the graft, the more vigorous Human Na- 
ture is, the more rapidly will Religion develope 
itself, display its celestial beauty, and bring forth 
more abundantly its divine fruit. 

Furthermore, there is not only a beautiful 
analogy between the revealed truths and profound 
mysteries of Religion and Human Nature, and so 
recognized by the Church in her exactest formulas, 
for instance, “‘as the rational soul and body is one 
man, so'is God and Man one Christ,” which is 
found in the Athanasian Creed ; but there is also 
an element, or faculty of Human Nature, which 
serves as a basis for the most wonderful gifts of 
the Holy Ghost. For Religion adds no new fac- 
ulty to our Nature ; in this regard Man was com- 
plete at the instant of his creation. Religion en- 
lightens and elevates the intelligence, rectifies and 
strengthens the Will ; and when this is done, as it 
sometimes is, in a wonderful way, the wonders we 
read of in the lives of the Saints come to pass. 


HUMAN NATURE. 231 


For these wonders are not contrary to Man’s Na- 
ture, nor altogether independent of his nature, but 
God acting in and through Human Nature in a 
wonderful way. 

‘““ We are not disposed to question the harmo- 
ny of Catholic doctrine with natural instinct :’ 
says an eminent Catholic Theologian; ‘‘ on the 
contrary, we believe that nature, in its purest con- 
dition, is the foundation on which the structure 
of revelation reposes, because God, the author of 
both, has planted in the human breast sentiments 
and affections which prepare us for his supernat- 
ural communications. The moral principles, which 
are designated by the name of Natural Law, are 
the basis on which the Divine Architect has plant- 
ed revelation; Nature, chastened and directed by 
it, is worthy of its Divine Parent, who has wisely 
provided for himself a testimony in its instincts. 
When the human mind, dazzled by the splendor 
of the Deity, turns towards created objects, and, 
charmed by their seductive features, concentrates 
its affections in them, the natural sense of the 
power and greatness of the Creator, although for a 
time obscured and deadened, is not altogether ex~ 
tinct, so that in sudden emergencies even the vo- 
tary of idolatry gives spontaneous expressions to 
Nature’s voice, recognizing her Author, as Tertul- 


9392 CATHOLIGCITY. 


lian long since observed. Not to the Capitol does 
he turn, nor is it Jupiter whom he invokes ; but 
with eyes uplifted towards the heavens, he cries 
out, O God! Well does the great apologist of 
Christianity exclaim on this occasion, ‘O testi- 
mony of the soul, which is naturally Christian,’”* 

This need be no cause for surprise, for the 
_ “Word by whom all things were made which were 
made, in whom was the life, and the life was the 
light of men,” is the same Word which was Incar- 
nated. The Word-Creator cannot contradict the 
Word-Incarnate. God cannot contradict God. 

Human Nature when free from prejudice gives 
unprompted utterances in its better moments to 
doubts and cravings, that the teachings of Catho- 
licity alone can answer or its life satisfy. This 
truth is made palpable by the following passage, 
of the import of which, at-the time it was written, 
and likely now, the author is unaware. 

‘“¢ Where now sounds the persuasive voice that 
by its melody imparadises my heart, and so affirms 
its origin in heaven? Where shall I hear words 
such as in elder ages drew men to leave all and 
follow, — father and mother, houses and lands, 
wife and child? Where shall I find these august 
Jaws of moral being so pronounced, as to fill my 


* Dr. Francis Patrick Kenrick. 


HUMAN NATURE. 2338 


ear, and I feel ennobled by the offer of my utter- 
most action and passion ? The test of the true 
faith, certainly, should be its power to charm and 
command the soul, as the laws of Nature control 
the activity of the hands,—so commanding that 
we find pleasure and honor in obeying.” * 

O testimony of- the soul naturally Catholic! 
What your soul yearns to hear, and all true souls, 
is the voice of its Spiritual Mother, the Holy 
Catholic Church. The persuasive voice, and the 
words of elder ages you desire to hear are hers, and 
the august laws of moral being she so pronounces, 
that were you once to give your ear to her voice, 
more tender, more maternal than a mother’s, it 
would be filled, and you too would feel ennobled 
by the offer of your uttermost action and passion. 
Apply but your own test of the true faith, and 
unless you wilfully close your eyes, you must see 
this. 
Where but in her bosom do you find, from elder 
ages to our own day, men and women, of every 
nation, of every rank, of every age, leaving all, 
father and mother, houses and lands, and offering 
up their uttermost action and passion, and feel 
ennobled while so doing ? Is not this fact written 
on every page of the annals of the Catholic Church, 


* Emerson. 


234 CATHOLICITY. 


and borne witness to in our own streets by the Sis- 
ters of Charity ? How explain this incontestable 
fact, unless it be that the Catholic Church alone 
has “‘ the power to charm and command the soul, 
as the laws of Nature control the activity of the 
hands,—so commanding that we find pleasure and 
honor in obeying?” Did it’ never occur to the 
author of the above passage, and those who share 
the same thoughts and sympathies, to apply their 
test of the true faith to the Catholic Church ? 

We accept unreservedly their own test of faith, 
and reaffirm that a Religion that does not awaken 
in man a sublime enthusiasm, elicit deeds of lofty 
and heroic sacrifice, and imparadise the heart, fails 
to affirm its origin in heaven, and comes from 
elsewhere. 

Most assuredly a Religion which can count its 
martyrs by millions, and whose noble children 
glory in strewing fresh branches of palm at her 
feet, must have so pronounced the august laws of 
moral being, as to fill their ear, and make them 
feel ennobled by the offer of their uttermost action 
and passion. 

It is a wonder that it has not occurred to these 
men to ask the question how the Catholic Church 
exercises her authority over two hundred and more 
millions of men! What power can unite in wor- 


HUMAN NATURE. 235 


ship at the same altar nations which differ as 
widely as the Italian, the German, the Spaniard, 
the Englishman, the Frenchman, the American, 
the Mexican, every nation, people, tribe and color 
under the sun ? 

Is it public opinion or civil power that enables 
her to do this? But in the elder ages Catholicity 
triumphed in spite of public opinion and civil 
power. It is inspite of public opinion, the bitter- 
est and cruellest persecution, and in our day, that 
ten millions of Catholics remain steadfast in their 
obedience to the Church in the British Islands. 

Look at this matter nearer home, and the truth 
will appear still more evident. very man that is 
born here, is free-born, free to embrace whatever 
Religion he pleases ; he need embrace none, if he 
can get along without any. Those who reach our 
shores share the same freedom. [very body knows 
that to be a Catholic in these United States is no 
title to public favor, no mark that commands pub- 
lic respect, no distinction which excites envy. Yet 
in face of all this, three millions of Catholics re- 
main more attached to their holy faith than to all 
else besides ! 

“‘ Superstition and prejudice!” but then why 
do we find men most distinguished for their intel- 
lectual gifts, learning, and moral worth, the 


236 CATHOLIOGCITY. 


stanchest defenders of Catholicity ? How is it 
that men whose prejudices, education, sentiments, 
interests—men also of intelligence, virtue, learn- 
ing, piety—condemn Protestantism of error, and 
reverse the movement of the sixteenth century, by 
giving in their allegiance to the authority of the 
Catholic Church ? 

It is as plain to intelligent and impartial minds 
as the light of the sun is to the eye at noon-day, 
that no kaiser, no monarch, no civil authority, no 
prejudice or superstition, can produce such invari- 
able convictions, such heroic actions, such world- 
wide and disinterested testimony in its favor. This 
all-embracing sway is the sole prerogative of Truth, 
of Divine Truth. And the only rational explana- 
tion which can be given of the deep-rooted convic- 
tion, and the deathless attachment of Catholics for 
their faith, is that it springs from the free and en- 
lightened homage of the undivided intellect and 
conscience of men to the majesty of Divine Truth. 
It is the spontaneous testimony of Human Nature 
in favor of Catholicity. 

We have cordially accepted the offered test of 
the true faith, and on its application have discov- 
ered that the Catholic Religion alone proves itself 
genuine. What hinders these gifted men from 
seeing this? Is it that they have not yet entered 


HUMAN NATURE. 237 


on a full possession of their intelligence to recog- 
nize it >—or has a deep and all-pervading skepti- 
cism so palsied their minds’ energies, that they 
have lost the ability to embrace the Truth ? 

Heaven grant that their splendid abilities may 
yet be crowned with Catholic faith, and their hon- 
est searches after truth rewarded with the sweet 
fruits of Catholic piety. 


XXVIII. 


Human Aature. 


“0 Spirit! who go’st on to blessedness 
With the same limbs that clad thee in thy birth.".—DANTE. 


HE friendly relations of Catholicity with Hu- 
man Nature are made evident by the best of 
proofs, the acknowledgments of her opponents. 

One party of these do not hesitate to declare 
that ‘“‘ The Catholic Religion is a logical system ; 
it addresses itself to the intellect ; but it is desti- 
tute of life, feeling, piety. The Romish Religion 
is not the religion of the heart,” they say, “ but 
of the logical faculty.” 

Grant this objection, what follows ? What is 
logic 2? “‘ Logic,” says Dr. Watts, “is the art of 
thinking and reasoning justly.” It follows clearly, 
then, that Catholicity is the Religion adapted to 


HUMAN NATURE. 239 


men who think and reason justly, men whose 
intellectual faculties are ripe, men of intelligence. 

That the Catholic Religion is what these ob- 
jectors say, logical, a perfect system of kindred 
truths centred in a sublime unity, and not an 
incoherent mass of contradictory opinions, such as 
every mature mind must despise, can easily be 
established. 

“The Catholic faith,” so says a Protestant 
writer, ‘‘if we concede its first axiom, which nei- 
ther the Lutherans nor the Reformed, nor even 
the followers of Socinius denied, is as consistent 
and as consecutive as the books of Euclid. The 
entire Romish religion is founded on the fact of a 
supernatural revelation, designed for the whole 
human race, which, as it embraces all generations, 
future as present, can never be interrupted ; other- 
wise the sublime work, accomplished by a God- 
man, and sealed by his blood, would be exposed, 
which is contrary to the hypothesis, to suffer and 
eventually to perish by the weakness and errors 
of men. These consequences of the first principles 
are indisputable, and there is not a single article 
of Catholic belief which is not justifiable, by the 
closest deduction, from this principle.” * 

“We, Protestants as we are,” says another 


*Gfrirer. Kritischer Geschichte des Urchustenthumes, B. 1, p. 15. 


240 CATHOLICITY. 


writer, in speaking of the Catholic Religion, 
‘“‘ when we take in view this wondrous edifice, from 
its base to its summit, must acknowledge that we 
never beheld a system which, the foundations 
once laid, is laid upon such certain, secure prin- 
ciples ; whose structure displays in its minutest 
details, so much art, penetration, and consistency, 
and whose plan is so proof against the severest 
criticism of the most profound science.* 

Guizot the celebrated Protestant historian, in 
comparing the Catholic Religion with the Protest- 
ant, which “did not fully comprehend and accept 
its own principles, or effects,” says, ‘‘ Catholics 
could point to their first principles and boldly 
admit all the consequences that might result from 
them.” ‘fF 

A celebrated Scotch metaphysician gave the 
substance of this in reply to some ministers who 
visited him in his last sickness. ‘ Gentlemen,” 
said he, when they pressed the subject of religion 
on his attention, “‘ were I a Christian it is not to 
you I should address myself ; but to priests of the 
Catholic Church ; for with them I find premises 
and conclusion, and this I know you cannot 
Often. 


* Marheineke Symbolik, p. 705. + Hist. Europ. Civil. 
$~ Compitum, 


HUMAN NATURE. QAL 


The conclusion from this testimony is a very 
simple and undeniable one. It is, that to become 
a Christian on Catholic principles itis not required 
to “set aside” or to “ strangle Reason ;”’ on the 
contrary, the Catholic Religion solicits its just 
exercise, welcomes its sincere efforts, and answers 
admirably to all its best convictions. It tells us 
in plain language that the Catholic Religion opens 
to men the only way by which they can, in strict 
accordance with the laws of intelligence, become - 
Christians. It proclaims a very important thing 
to be known, to wit, that Catholicity is the only 
Religion for intelligent minds, and an enlightened 
people. It is precisely the Religion our “ Harnest 
Seeker,” in his somewhat defiant yet honest lan- 
guage, demanded. 

Another class of opponents to Catholicity 
gravely inform us that “the Catholic Religion is 
the religion of the senses and the passions ; it 
seeks only to excite the feelings and captivate the 
imagination; its appeals are addressed to the 
sentimental side of man’s nature.” 

Admit that the Catholic Religion attracts the 
senses, captivates the imagination, and answers to 
the sentimental side of man’s nature, and you will 
be obliged, if consistent, to acknowledge that 
Catholicity answers to an essential and most im- 
portant part of Human Nature. | 

11 


242, CATHOLIGCITY. 


But, in all candor, should not true Religion 
answer to the sentimental side of man’s nature ? 
Is the heart less the work of God than the head ? 
Are the senses, the imagination, the feelings, in 
one word, the heart, to take no part in the worship 
of their all-wise Giver? Let us give place here 
toa more able pen, and that of a non-Catholic, to 
advocate our cause. 

“It is of great importance that religion should 
be an affection of the heart as well as a conviction 
of the understanding ; because it is to govern in a 
soul which is agitated by various passions, which is 
powerfully solicited by the world, and which is 
prone to contract a sensual taint and sordid char- 
acter. These strong and dangerous propensities 
of Human Nature are not to be counteracted by 
mere speculations of the intellect. The heart must 
be engaged on the side of God and duty. Tosub- 
due the love of the world a nobler love must be 
kindled within us. A new and better channel 
must be formed for this desire which we would turn 
from unworthy ends. We cannot, if we would, 
extinguish the affections. Our safety consists in 
directing their force and energy to noble and ele- 
vated objects—to God, to virtue, and to immor- 
tality.” * 


* Dr. Channing’s Memoirs, p. 878. 


HUMAN NATURE. 243 


“Human nature will never be satisfied with a 
system which does not awaken sentiment and 
emotion. Man has a thirst for excitement; he 
delights in the exercise of his affections, and his 
Creator can hardly be supposed to give him a 
religion which contradicts this essential part of his 
nature.” * 

Conceding, then, the charges of both these 
parties against the Catholic Religion, it follows, 
according to their own showing, that it is perfectly 
adapted to all man’s nature. For, putting to- 
gether the intellectual and sentimental faculties 
and affections of men, you have Human Nature 
whole and complete. Catholicity, therefore, is 
that Religion which links itself to all the faculties 
of the mind, appropriates all the instincts of Hu- 
man Nature, and by thus concurring with the 
work of the Creator, affirms its own divine origin. 

The indulgent reader must not think us cap- 
tious if we give room here to another objection to 
the Catholic religion, since it springs up naturally 
in this place. 

A class of objectors assert that ‘‘ Catholicity 
is nothing but heathenism. Did not the early 
Fathers corrupt the Gospel by their study of hea- 
then authors, especially Plato, and the Doctors of 

* Ibid, p. 879. 


Q44 CATHOLIGCITY. 


medieval times by their study of Aristotle ? The 
Romish religion is nothing else than pagan idolatry 
tempered here and there with a dash of Chris- 
tianity.” 

No one is so ignorant as to need to be told 
that the heathen religion was abject, degrading, 
and dreadfully corrupt. Yet, even the heathen 
were men created by the same hands which fash- 
ioned us. ‘They were born precisely ke ourselves, 
endowed with Reason and Free-Will. They pos- 
sessed the same religious nature and aspirations, 
as men born in our day. The substance of the 
great truths of the true Religion formed a part of 
the natural inheritance of Reason, and the princi- 
pal moral laws were engraven upon the tablets of 
their hearts. 

The heathen were not altogether God-forsaken. 
One may trace, without great difficulty, with a 
greater or less degree of distinctness, certain great 
dogmas of Christianity ; for instance, the fall of 
angels and that of man, the expectation of a Re- 
deemer, “‘the Desired of nations,” the necessity 
of sacrifice, the communion of the living with the 
departed, and connected with these, faint types of 
certain Christian rites and ceremonies.” 

Now, what seems reasonable and natural to 
anticipate is, that if God should deign to give to 


HUMAN NATURE, Q45 


men a final and perfect system of religious truth, 
it would necessarily include and complete all the 
natural truths, and the truths received from an 
invisible source, under every form of religious belief 
of mankind. And, therefore, in finding in Catho- 
licity truths and rites which were held and 
observed, yet in a corrupted state, among the 
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and other 
nations of the earth, we have in this fact another 
evidence which confirms her divine origin and 
authority. 

“There is no brighter token,” says a Protestant 
Divine, “that the Gospel comes from the great 
Builder of the world, than that it takes up in the 
scope of its own design, and makes a part of its 
own honor, whatever goodness has come to light in 
the world outside of its conscious kingdom. The 
moment this all-comprehending and Catholic law 
of life was revealed on earth in Jesus, all pre- 
existing morality seemed at once, by a natural 
necessity, to become an element in its strength. 
All foreign loveliness merged itself in that tran- 
scendent beauty. Name whatsoever virtue or 
aspiration you might, it had a niche provided for 
it in this Christian pantheon of the new worship. 
By this wonderful assimilative energy Christianity 
instantly appropriated to itself all the lawful forces 


246 CATHOLIGCITY. 


of nature. It enthroned itself as the sovereign of 
the world’s experience, claiming the universal em- 
pire of divine right.” * 

The author of the above passage could not 
have better described the Catholic Church, and 
doubtless it was its history he had in mind while 
writing it, but the word ‘ Gospel” was inserted 
to meet the prejudices of his hearers. 

To give a practical illustration of the principles 
developed in this chapter and the preceding one, 
in contrast with those put forth by Protestantism, 
let us suppose a case. , 

Imagine that a young man, our “ Karnest 
Seeker” for instance, should go to a Protestant 
preacher to find out what Christianity teaches. 
The preacher, consistent with his creed, brings 
forward the fundamental points of Protestantism, 
the total depravity of Human Nature, and justi- 
fication by faith alone. This he does in order to 
make, as he thinks, the necessity of religion and 
of a Saviour the more deeply felt. He developes 
his ideas, and grows eloquent in his description of 
man’s corrupt nature. All his thoughts are evil, 
all his feelings are evil, all his actions filthy. The 
good he does partakes of the nature of evil. His 
case has been made out, and he listens to what 


* Huntington’s Sermons for the People. 1856. 


HUMAN NATURE. 247 


his young friend will say before pressing the con- 
clusion. 

But he replies, ‘‘ Reverend Sir, whether this be 
Christianity or not, it is not my place to judge. 
It however seems to me that man’s nature is not 
altogether bereft of traces of goodness, and evi- 
dences of his great Author, Reason has gleams 
of truth, and its aspirations leave him no rest till 
they are followed out and realized. At times 
noble and generous sentiments swell his bosom. 
He hates injustice, tyranny, oppression. Often he 
does wrong, it is true, but his conscience does not 
fail to admonish and make him feel wretched for 
it. Man is by no means an angel ; yet, Rev. Sir, 
it does not appear to me that he is totally de- 
praved, evil, corrupt—a very devil.” 

“ My young friend,” says the preacher, ‘* you 
are altogether astray. The Sacred Volume teaches 
no such views as you put forth concerning man. 
Too plainly it teaches the depravity of the human 
heart. You must not listen to the voice of a 
subtle self-love and pride. Believe God’s holy 
word, or there is no escape from the punishment 
of eternal death.” 

“Yet, Reverend Sir, you surely cannot de- 
mand of me to believe what contradicts my Reason 
and shocks the dictates of my conscience? This 


248 CATHOLICITY. 


cannot be Religion! Can it be an acceptable 
homage to the Author of my being to trample 
under foot his noblest gifts, Reason and Con- 
science? No, sir! ¥ 

“But stop!” replies the preacher, in an ex- 
cited tone, ‘‘ you must use no such language in 
my presence. How dare you set yourself up as 
the judge of God’s ways, and his Revelation ! 
Your language is that of unregenerated natures, 
the man of sin. This you must stifle, and listen 
to God’s word only. You must submit your Rea- 
son and Conscience to the Bible, and accept on 
faith alone, what it teaches, or your portion will 
be hell.” 

““Let me preserve,” replies the ‘“ Harnest 
Seeker,” with the feelings of an outraged nature, 
“Jet me preserve, Reverend Sir, my Reason and 
my Conscience, for these I know are God-given, 
and you are welcome to your Christianity. As 
for the future, Reverend Sir, I would rather take 
my chance with a sound Reason and a good Con- 
science, and risk your threatened hell, than accept 
your Christianity with the prospect of your 
heaven ! ” . 

This is no over-drawn picture, nor one from 
fancy ; it is an unvarnished statement of fact ; 
and not a few young men who have sought to 





HUMAN NATURE. Q49 


satisfy the cravings of their religious nature by 
Protestantism, could tell, in the main, the same 
as an event of personal experience. 

It would be needless to relate, after what has 
been said, how differently the Catholic Priest 
would meet such a person. For the Catholic Re- 
ligion, having the highest appreciation of Human 
Nature, recognizes and listens with reverence to its 
genuine voice, welcomes and confirms the good it 
finds, rectifies and cultivates what is astray, and 
re-establishes man in his true relations with 
the universe, and with God. 


ais 


XXVIII. 


Sustificatiron, 


“Do not doubt 
But to receive the grace, which Heaven vouchsafes, 
Is meritorious, even as the soul 
With prompt affection welcometh the guest.” 
DANTE, 


EFORE entering on our present task, we can- 

not refrain from remarking that it is one 
which is beset with not a few difficulties. It will, 
however, become much easier if the indulgent 
reader will endeavor to recall what was said on 
Justification and Protestantism in the twentieth 
chapter. 

There, according to the great lights of the 
Reformation and the formulas of the Protestant 
sects, we learned that “‘man is justified by faith 
alone, by which the righteousness of Christ is im- 


JUSTIFICATION. 251 


puted to him, yet he still remains in sin, and is as 
black and as ugly as the devil himself almost.” 

Bearing this in mind, and what has been said 
in the foregoing chapters on Catholicity : that the 
Catholic Religion does not set aside or conflict 
with Reason, but enlightens, ennobles, perfects it ; 
and that grace, far from taking from man Free- 
Will, supposes its codperation, and gives to it a 
superior strength by which it is elevated to a new 
mode of action ; with these things present to our 
memories, we shall be able to set aside many diffi- 
culties, and make our subject easily and better 
understood. 

To begin with the beginning :—What is the 
meaning of the werd ‘‘ justification” in the Cath- 
olic sense of the term ? 

“ Justification,” as described by the Council of 
Trent, and this is the only one of the Councils 
which has treated this point, consists in “ the 
transferring of man from that state wherein he 
was born a child of the first Adam, to the state 
of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God, 
through the second Adam, Jesus Christ our 
Saviour.” * 

Man, by the disobedience of Adam, lost the 
gift of sanctifying grace which entitled him to the 


* Sess. v. ¢. iv. 


252 CATHOLIGCITY. 


beatific vision of God ; through Christ, this sin of 
disobedience is forgiven, the lost grace is restored 
to man, and he becomes once more the child of 
God and heir of heaven, 

But how is this change brought about ? Has 
man nothing more to do in the matter than a clog 
or astone? Is this work of justification some- 
thing altogether independent of man’s codpera- 
tion, as Protestantism teaches ? 

‘The Synod further declares that, in adults, 
the beginning of the said justification is to be 
derived from the preéminent grace of God through 
Jesus Christ . . . that so they, who by sins were 
alienated from God, may be disposed, through His 
quickening and assisting grace, to convert them- 
selves to their own justification, by freely assenting 
to and coéperating with that said grace in such 
sort that, while God moveth the heart of man by 
the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is man 
himself utterly without doing any thing while he 
receives that inspiration, forasmuch as he is able 
to reject it; yet is he not able, by his own free 
will, without the grace of God, to move himself 
unto Justice in his sight.” * 

This makes justification a mutual work between 
God and man. According to the Catholic faith, 


* 6, VY. 


JUSTIFICATION. 253 


God gives to all men alienated by sin from him 
His quickening and assisting grace “to convert 
themselves to their own justification ;” and if 
man is not justified, it is because he does not 
“assent and codperate with this grace,” but “ re- 
jects it.’ Thus, by the Catholic doctrine of justi- 
fication, the goodness of God is maintained, for he 
gives the grace to convert to all. The justice of 
God is. maintained, since, if man is not justified, 
it is because he rejects the grace to convert. The 
necessity of grace is maintained, for man is not 
able by his own Free-Will to move himself into 
justice in the sight of God. The dignity of man 
is maintained, for the work of justification can 
only take place by the free assent and codperation 
of his will. Justification, then, according to the 
teachings of the Catholic religion, is the result of 
quickening and assisting grace and the assent and 
codperation of Free-Will ; and this doctrine beau- 
tifully reconciles the honor of God and the dignity 
of man in the work of Salvation. 
_ As this work of man’s justification is one that 
concerns his interest here and hereafter most inti- 
mately—one of eternal felicity, let us follow up 
closely the process by which it is fully accomplished. 
‘““ Now they (adults) are disposed unto said 
justice, when, excited and assisted by divine grace, 


254. CATHOLIGITY. 


conceiving faith by hearing, they are freely moved 
towards God, believing those things to be true 
which God has revealed and promised,—and this 
especially, that God justifies the impious by His 
grace through the redemption that is in Jesus 
Christ ; and when understanding themselves to be 
sinners, they, by turning themselves from the fear 
of divine justice whereby they are profitably agi- 
tated, to consider the mercy of God, are raised 
into hope, confiding that God will be propitious 
to them for Christ’s sake ; and they begin to love 
Him as the fountain of all justice, and are there- 
fore moved against sins by a certain hatred and 
detestation, to wit, by that penance which must 
be performed before baptism ; lastly, when they 
purpose to receive baptism, to begin a new life, 
and to keep the commandments.of God.” * 

- In this manner God treats man as a rational 
and free-agent in the work of restoring him to that 
grace and felicity which was lost by Adam’s dis- 
obedience. On the one hand, we have the won- 
derful and secret workings of God’s Spirit, and on 
the other, the activity of man’s intelligence and the 
free assent and codperation of his will. How 
different from that irrational theology which holds 
up to our view a God of a stern and irresistible 


* ¢, vii. 


JUSTIFICATION. 255 


necessity, and pictures man as the entirely passive 
and helpless slave of his despotic power ! 

Suppose these dispositions and preparations of 
mind and heart have preceded, and the person 
purposes to receive Baptism, what has that to do 
with justification ? Let the Council speak :— 

““ If any one denies, that, by the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, 
the guilt of original sin is remitted ; or even 
asserts that the whole of that which has the true 
and proper nature of sin is not taken away, but 
says that it is only cancelled, or not imputed ; let 
him be anathema. For, in those who are born 
again, there is nothing that God hates ; because, 
there is no condemnation to those who are truly 
buried together with Christ by baptism into 
death ; who walk not according to the flesh, but, 
putting off the old man, and putting on the new, 
who is created according to God, are made inno- 
cent, immaculate, pure, harmless, and beloved of 
God, heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with 
Christ ; so that there is nothing whatever to 
retard their entrance into heaven. But this holy 
Synod confesses and is sensible, that in the bap- 
tized there remains concupiscence, or an incentive ; 
which, whereas it is left for our exercise, cannot 
injure those who consent not, but resist mantfully 


256 CATHOLICITY. 


by the grace of Jesus Christ ; yea, he who shall 
have striven lawfully, shall be crowned.” * 

Baptism, therefore, is the means whereby the 
grace of justification is communicated to the soul. 
And this justification is not something ‘“‘ foreign,” 
“extrinsic,” ‘ imputed,” or “‘ reputed ” to the soul, 
but a reality, inherent, essential, by which we are 
made innocent, immaculate, pure, harmless, and 
beloved of God! The work of Christianity in this 
way, is not made out a thing of mere appearance 
and sham, but a real and sincere restoration of the 
soul. Let, however, the Council explain further 
this matter ; for the truth, consistency, and beauty 
of its teachings, command our assent and excite 
our admiration. 

“ Justification, which is not the remission of 
sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal 
of the inward man, through the voluntary recep- 
tion of the grace and of the gifts, whereby man of 
unjust becomes just, and of an enemy a friend, 
that so he may be an heir according to hope of life 
everlasting. ... The instrumental cause is the 
sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of 
faith, without which faith no man was ever justi- 
fied ; lastly, the formal cause is the justice of God, 
not that whereby He Himself is just, but that 


* Bess, y. 


JUSTIFICATION. 257 


whereby He maketh us just, that, to wit, with 
which we, being endowed by Him, are renewed in 
the spirit of our mind, and we are not only reputed, 
but are truly called, and are, just ; receiving justice 
within us, each one according to his own measure, 
which the Holy Ghost distributes to every one as 
He wills, and according to each one’s proper dis- 
position and codperation. For, although no one 
can be just, but he to whom the merits of the 
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are communi- 
cated, yet is this done in the said justification of 
the impious, when, by the merit of that same 
most holy Passion, the charity of God is poured 
forth, by the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of those 
who are justified, and is inherent therein ; whence 
man, through Jesus Christ, in whom he is in- 
grafted, receives, in the said justification, together 
with the remission of sins, all these gifts infused 
at once, faith, hope, and charity . . . Wherefore, 
when receiving true and Christian justice, they 
are bidden, immediately on being born again, to 
preserve it pure and spotless, as the first robe 
given them through Jesus Christ in lieu of that 
which Adam, by his disobedience, lost for himself 
and for us, that so they may bear it before the 
judgment-seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, and may 
have life everlasting.” * 


*-Sess. vi. 


258 CATHOLIGCITY. 


Thus justification, in the Catholic meaning of 
the word, is the renewal of the inward man 
through the voluntary reception of the gifts and 
graces of God. Being endowed by God, we are 
renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not 
only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just, 
receiving justice within us. The merits of Christ, 
and the charity of God, is poured forth by the 
Holy Spirit in the heart, and is inherent therein. 

The soul once more adorned with gifts and 
graces of God, restored to its ancient beauty, and 
elevated to the plane of the grandeur of its sublime 
destiny, we are not surprised at the saying of a 
saint, that, could we behold the beauty of a soul 
in the grace of God, we would die for joy. Or of 
another, who, on seeing a soul in grace, said that 
she would willingly die to prevent it from losing 
so great a beauty. 

What a contrast with that religion which 
teaches that the ‘‘ justification of the sinner is a 
reputed one ;” ‘‘ they are looked upon as just, al- 
though, by virtue of corrupt nature, they are truly 
sinners, and remain so even unto death ;” “if you 
regarded a Christian as he is in himself, you would 
simply see, however holy he may be, no purity at 
all in him, but you would see him as black and 
ugly as almost the devil himself” Yet such is 


JUSTIFICATION, 259 


the absurd, ridiculous, horrid doctrine of justifica- 
tion taught by Orthodox, Evangelical Protestant- 
ism! The Reformers were consistent in making 
it a prerequisite to ‘‘ strangle Reason” in order 
to be a Protestant Christian. 

Connected with this subject is the doctrine of 
the merit of good works. We have seen that 
those who set themselves up as teachers of a puri- 
fied Gospel, held that the virtues of the pagans 
were vices ; and that even the works of a justified 
man, as the actions of a corrupt being, were in 
themselves deadly sins ; and that if the doctrine 
of justification by faith alone is lost, it would be 
all over with them. 

The Catholic religion teaching that man is in 
possession of Reason and Free-Will ; that justifi- 
cation is a real and inherent one ; it cannot but 
hold to the ability to do good works, and the 
necessity of them both before and after justifica- 
tion. 

Hence the Council of Trent condemns those 
who say :— 

“That all works done before Justification, in 
whatsoever way they be done, are truly sins, or 
merit the hatred of God.” * 

And also it condemns those who say :-— 


* Sess. vi. 


260 CATHOLIGCITY. 


“ That by faith alone the impious is justified ; 
in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is re- 
quired to codperate in order to the obtaining the 
grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way 
necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the 
movement of his own will.” * 

And after Justification, the Council declares 
that :— 

‘“‘ Before men who have been justified . . . are 
to be set the words of the Apostle : ‘Abound in 
every good work, knowing that your labor is not 
in vain in the Lord ;’ ‘for God is not unjust, that 
he should forget your work, and the love which 
you have shown in his name ;’ and ‘do not lose 
your confidence, which hath a great reward.’ 
And for this cause, life eternal is to be proposed 
to those working well unto the end, and hoping in 
God, both as a grace mercifully promised to the 
sons of God through Jesus Christ, and as a reward 
which is according to the promise of God Himself, 
to be faithfully rendered to their good works and 
merits.” |... And in the canon on this subject 
the same Council declares that 

‘“‘ Tf any one saith that the good works of one 
that is justified are in such manner the gifts of 
God, as that they are not also the good merits of 


* Sess. vi. t 1 Cor. xv. 58. Hebr. vi.10. Ib. x. 35. | + Sess. vi. 


JUSTIFICATION. 261 


him that is justified ; or, that the said justified, 
by the good works which he performs through the 
grace of God and the merits ot Jesus Christ, whose 
living member he is, does not truly merit increase 
of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that 
eternal life.—if so be, however, that he depart in 
erace—and also an increase of glory ; let him be 
anathema.” * 

The doctrine of justification thus presented, 
answers completely to man’s intellectual and moral 
nature. In the first place the intelligence is en- 
lightened to see the relations in which man in his 
present condition stands to his Creator ; the will 
is excited to believe God’s promises; and both 
Reason and will cooperate with God’s grace in the 
soul’s restoration. And when so restored, God 
offers to it heaven, and an increase of glory, on 
condition of its fidelity and codperation by good 
works. 

Thus Catholicity seizes hold of our whole 
nature, puts all our faculties in action, and directs 
all our energies to the attainment of our divinely- 
appointed end. Behold a Religion which is con- 
sistent with purity, with justice, and with the 
mercy of God! 


* Sess. ii. 


XXIX. 
Individuality. 


“ And were the world below content to mark, 
And work on the foundation nature lays, 
It would not lack supply of excellence.” 
DANTE. 


RAVE authors inform us, and this piece of 
information is reiterated again and again by 
the press, so that through one or the other chan- 
nel we have it incessantly dinned in our ears, that 
‘“‘the Romish religion oppresses and destroys the 
individuality of its members. The individual is 
made of no account in its system ; no room is left 
for the free play of personal action. Romanism 
governs with a tyrant’s rod and sway.” 
To hear this language from the lips of men who 
are the dupes of that wretched system of “‘ religion 
which comprises creatures without liberty, doctrines 


INDIVIDUALITY. 263 


without common sense, faith without Reason, and 
a God without pity,” excites us indeed, but only 
to smile. Surely, men who can make such calum- 
nious charges against the Catholic religion, in an 
enlightened community, are beyond the reach of 
argument or the force of facts. 

Gentle reader, pass these men by as you would 
a group of disordered intellects, and let them gnarl 
on in token of the galling chains from which they 
suffer, and be not weary to pause here awhile and 
consider how beautifully Catholicity brings out 
man’s individuality, and gives a free and various 
field for the display of his manifold faculties. 

Every faculty of the soul, nightly exercised, 
leads to truth ; every instinct of our nature has an 
eternal destiny attached to it. Catholicity finds 
her support in these, and employs them in all her 
developments. It is one of her fundamental 
principles to welcome, sanction, and encourage 
individual exertion. Witness her countless variety 
of religious orders, for men and women, congrega- 
tions, confraternaties, sodalities, adapted to the 
peculiar bent, tastes, and qualities of all classes 
of individuals. 

“ Religion, justly viewed,” says Dr. Channing, 
and in so speaking he describes the Catholic reli- 
gion beautifully, ‘“‘ surpasses all other principles, 


264 CATHOLICITY. 


in giving free and manifold action to the mind. 
It recognizes in every faculty and sentiment the 
workmanship of God, and assigns a sphere of 
agency to each. It takes our whole nature under 
its guardianship, and with a parental love, minis- 
ters to the inferior as well as to the higher grati- 
fications. False religion mutilates the soul, sees 
evil in our innocent sensibilities, and rules with a 
tyrant’s frown and rod. ‘True religion is a mild 
and lawful sovereign, governing to protect, to give 
strength, to unfold all our inward resources.” * 

As the truth is more plainly seen, when con- 
trasted with error, let us compare the Protestant 
religion with the Catholic on this most interesting 
point. 

Every observer has been not seldom surprised 
at the variety of mental and moral tastes and dif- 
ferences of character among men; and even 
among those who devote themselves to religion. 
What a difference among even the patriarchs and 
prophets of old, and equally so among the apostles 
of Christianity ! In what light does the Protes- 
tant religion regard these peculiarities and differ- 
ences of vocation among men ? 

Suppose there be one whose eyes are turned 
towards eternity, and listening to the words of the 

* Vol. ii p. 211. 


INDIVIDUALITY. 265 


Divine Master, “ What shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul?” would renounce all, and 
give himself up entirely to his eternal interests, 
what encouragement would he find in Protestant- 
ism? ‘Take another who intently regards his 
Master’s sufferings, fastings, self-denial, and pov- 
erty, and hears as if from His own lips the words, 
“Take up the cross and follow me,” what sympa- 
thy would such a one find in reformed Christianity? 
Another recognizes God in the poor, the sick, the 
down-trodden, the wretched ; and the words of the 
Lord touch her heart, ‘‘ As often as you do this: to 
the least of these you do it unto me ;” and she 
would devote her whole life and all her energies to 
their service for love of Jesus : what help and sanc- 
tion would she find in the religion of the Reforma- 
tion? Another, like St. John the Baptist, would 
retire into the desert or live among the rocks, the 
wild flowers, the old oaks or majestic palms, and 
among the beauties of nature lift up his soul to 
gaze on the beauty of its Author ; what considera-~ 
tion would Protestant Christianity bestow upon 
such a one? Imagine another taken with love 
for the divine virtue of virginity, would follow her 
Lord and his beloved disciple in their saintly steps, 
and vows her virgin soul to God ; how would Pro- 
testantism look upon that ? But we must stop, 
12 : 


266 CATHOLICITY. 


for there is no end to the wonderful variety of 
vocations, and God’s views in regard to men, and 
ask our question: Would Protestantism, in her 
development, employ these devoted men and 
women, sanction their divine call, and encourage 
them to fidelity ? Or would it look down upon 
them in derision, and with a contemptuous smile 
treat them as crack-brained enthusiasts ? 

Every man who has ever known what Pro- 
testantism is, knows full well that it- chills the 
generous impulses of the soul, and has no concep- 
tion of an heroic self-sacrificing devotion to the 
interests of God and the welfare of man. 

“These views are every day driving distin- 
guished, and gifted, and enthusiastic women into 
the pale of that church, which stretches out its 
arms, and says: ‘Come unto me, ye who are 
troubled, ye who are idle, and I will give you rest 
and work, and with these sympathy and reverence, 
the religious sanction, direction, and control !’ 
Can we find nothing of all this for our women ? 
Why should they thus go out from us? I, for 
my part, do not understand it.” * 

Now let us cast a glance on the other side, 
and, lest we may be accused of exaggeration, 
another pen, and a Protestant one, shall draw the 
contrast :— 


* Mrs. Jameson’s Sisters of Charity. 


INDIVIDUALITY. 267 


“Far different is the policy of Rome. The 
ignorant enthusiast whom the Anglican Church 
makes an enemy, and, whatever the learned and 
polite may think, a most dangerous enemy, the 
Catholic Church makes a champion. She bids 
him nurse his beard, covers him with a gown and 
hood of coarse dark stuff, ties a rope areund his 
waist, and sends him forth to teach in her name. 

“‘ He costs her nothing, He takes not a ducat 
from the revenues of her beneficed clergy. He 
lives by the alms of those who respect his spiritual 
character, and are grateful for his instructions. 
He preaches not exactly in the style of Massillon, 
but in a way which moves the passions of unedu- 
cated hearers ; and all his influence is employed to 
' strengthen the church of which he is a minister. 
To that church he becomes as strongly attached 
as any of the cardinals whose scarlet carriages and 
liveries crowd the entrance of the palace on the 
Quirinal. In this way the Church of Rome unites 
in herself all the strength of an establishment and 
all the strength of dissent. With the utmost 
pomp of a dominant hierarchy above, she has all 
the energy of the voluntary system below. ven 
for female agency there is a place in her system. 
To devout women she assigns spiritual functions, 
dignities, and magistracies. In our country, if a 


268 CATHOLICITY. 


noble lady is moved by more than ordinary zeal 
for the propagation of religion, the chance is, that 
though she may disapprove of no one doctrine or 
ceremony of the Established Church, she will end 
by giving her name to a new schism. If a pious 
and benevolent woman enters the cells of a prison 
to prayswith the most unhappy and degraded of 
her own sex, she does so without any authority 
from the church. No line of action is traced out 
for her ; and it is well if the ordinary does not 
complain of her intrusion, and if the Bishop does 
not shake his head at such irregular benevolence. 
At Rome the Countess of Huntington would have 
a place in the calendar, as St. Selma, and Mrs. 
Fry would be the foundress and first Superior of 
the Blessed Order of Sisters of the jails. 

“Place Ignatius Loyola at Oxford ; he is cer- 
tain to become the head of a formidable secession. 
Place John Wesley at Rome ; he is certain to be 
the first general of a new society devoted to the 
interests and honor of the church. Place St. 
Theresa in London ; her restless enthusiasm fer- 
ments into madness, not untinctured with craft. 
She becomes the prophetess and mother of the 
faithful, holds disputations with the devil, issues 
sealed pardons to her adorers, and lies-in of the— 
Shiloh, Place Joanna Southcote at Rome, She 


INDIVIDUALITY. 269 


founds an order of barefooted Carmelites, every 
one of whom is ready to suffer martyrdom for the 
church—a solemn service is consecrated to her 
memory, and her statue, placed over the. holy 
water, strikes the eye of every stranger who enters 
St. Peter’s.” * 

If this be so, and where is there one to deny or 
gainsay its truth ? then the Catholic religion, so 
far from crushing man’s individuality and inde- 
pendence, is wonderfully calculated and adapted 
to call forth, sustain, and perfect the tastes, pro- 
pensities, and peculiarities of human nature. And 
let no one venture to say that these characteristics 
which are every where found among men, are to be 
repressed rather than encouraged. Thisis to despise 
human nature. This is to mar the work of God. 
For are not these peculiarities inborn ? Are they 
not implanted in us by the hand of our Creator ? 
Are they not what go to constitute our very in- 
dividuality ? That our author above has given a 
correct view of the Catholic Church is confirmed 
by a distinguished writer of our own country :— 

“The Romish religion,” so says the celebrated 
Dr. Channing, ‘calls itself one; but it has a 
singular variety of forms and aspects. For the 
lover of forms and outward religion it has a gor- 


* Macaulay. 


270 CATHOLIGCITY. 


geous ritual. To the mere man of the world it 
shows a Pope on the throne, Bishops in palaces, 
and all the splendor of earthly dominion. At the 
same time for the self-denying ascetic, mystical 
and fanatical, it has all forms of monastic life. To 
him who would scourge himself into godliness, it 
offers a whip. To him who would starve himself 
into spirituality it provides the mendicant convents 
of St. Francis. For the anchorite it prepares 
the death-bed-like silence of La Trappe. To the 
passionate young woman it presents the raptures of 
St. Theresa, and the marriage of St. Catherine with 
her Saviour. For the restless pilgrim whose piety 
needs a greater variety than the cell of the monk, 
it offers shrines, tombs, relics, and holy places in 
Christian lands, and above all the holy sepulchre 
near Calvary. To the generous, sympathizing 
enthusiast, it opens some fraternity or sisterhood 
of charity. To him who inclines to take heaven 
by violence, it gives as much penance as he can 
ask ; and to the mass of men, who wish to re- 
concile the two worlds, it promises purgatory, so 
far softened down by the masses of the priest and 
the prayers of the faithful, that its fires can be 
anticipated without overwhelming dread. This 
composition of forces in the Romish Church, seems 
to me a wonderful movement of skill. When in 


INDIVIDUALITY. 271 


Rome, the traveller sees by the side of the purple- 
lackeyed cardinal, the begging friar ; when under 
the arches of St. Peter, he sees a coarsely dressed 
monk holding forth to a ragged crowd, or when 
beneath a Franciscan church, adorned with the 
most precious works of art, he meets a charnel- 
house where the bones of the dead brethren are 
built into walls, between which the living walk 
to read their mortality, he is amazed, if he gives 
himself time for reflection, at the infinite variety 
of machinery which Catholicism has brought to 
bear upon the human mind, at the sagacity with 
which it has adapted itself to the various tastes 
and propensities of human nature.” * 
Acknowledgments of this kind, from such 
sources, form an all-sufficient refutation of the 
charge that Catholicity restrains man’s personal 
activity, cramps his genius, and crushes out all his 
individuality and feeling of personal independence, 
At the same time we must acknowledge, that the 
doctor passes on Catholics a compliment for “‘ saga- 
city ” for which, if it be meant, they ought to be 
under the greatest obligations. To attribute this 
‘‘ adaptation of itself to the various tastes and 
propensities of human nature ” to the sagacity of 
Catholics, is not usual for Protestants. In the 
* Vol ii. pp. 273-45, 


272 CATHOLICITY. 


name of our common manhood and intelligence, 
is all ‘skill and sagacity in religion” confined to 
these Catholics ? One can hardly believe that the 
doctor intended so great, so extravagant a com- 
pliment as his words import. For never before 
Catholicity, never alongside of Catholicity, was 
there such an “infinite variety of machinery 
brought to bear upon the human mind.” It is 
truly “amazing.” Our bosoms swell with a just 
pride at the very thought of it. . Hereafter let the 
world cease to wag its slanderous tongue by charg- 
ing the Catholic Church with crushing man’s 
individuality, benumbing his activity, and making 
him a slave. We accept the compliment ; but 
our readers must not think us over-suspicious 
when we tell them that it is our honest opinion, 
the distinguished writer did not really and sin- 
cerely mean it. It must be regarded as an 
expedient to escape the humiliating acknowledg- 
ment of truth—the truth that the Catholic 
Church could not have shown such an adaptation 
to the variety of tastes and propensities of human 
nature, unless guided by a higher intelligence, and 
instinct with a sagacity more than human. 

That it is not human sagacity which brings 
these things about, is plain from the strenuous 
efforts and frequent experiments which have been 


INDIVIDUALITY. 273 


made to copy these adaptations among Protes- 
tants, and the fact that they have been met with 
nothing but disappointment and most signal fail- 
ure. For with all its attempts it has as yet failed 
to produce even one Sister of Charity. How im- 
portant and necessary this variety of adaptations 
is to the carrying on of God’s work, and how eager 
Protestants would be to have it among themselves, 
were it possible, is evinced most forcibly in a 
recent charge of a Protestant bishop to his clergy. 
“We must,” he says, “look upon the church 
not merely as a sacred monument, but also as a 
working organism ; as the great agent placed in 
the world to redeem the world. We must catch 
the spirit of enterprise which now vitalizes society, 
and aim at doing great things; we must have 
enough of elasticity to adapt ourselves to all the 
various phases of social life, and be able sometimes 
to bend without breaking. The church should 
be as much at home in the wilds of Nebraska, and 
speak as directly to the living wants of those 
remote regions, as she does to the refined congre- 
gations of the metropolis. We must find a place 
for men of all varieties of temperament, and give 
to each just that work to do for which he is the 
best fitted. We must face the real evils of soci- 
ety, and so exhibit the church that the poor will 
12* 


274. CATHOLIGCITY. 


look to her as their helper, the outcast look to her 
as their comforter. The establishment of our free 
churches, hospitals, mutual relief societies, and 
the like, is one of the most hopeful indications of 
the church. This movement will do more to com- 
mend her to public favor than all the arguments 
that ever were written.” * Suppose, now, that 
all this Protestant Episcopalian bishop says ‘‘ we 
must do” were done, what would be accomplished ? 
Why, a miniature, and that imperfect, of what the 
Catholic Church has always done, and always will 
do until the end of time. But those who are read 
in the history of Protestantism and its efforts, 
know full well that it possesses a demoniac power 
to pull down, but is utterly helpless and inefficient 
to build up. 

“The truth seems to me to amount to this,” 
says a Protestant writer, “ that the Roman Cath- 
olic Church has had the good sense to turn to 
account, and assimilate to itself, and inform with 
its own peculiar doctrines, a deep-seated principle 
in our Human Nature,—a law of life, which we 
Protestants have had the folly to repudiate.” 

That Catholicity gives full scope and freedom 
to individual action, is seen on a broader scale in 
the characteristics of Catholic nations. For though 


* Dr. Clarke, Bishop of R. L. + Mrs. Jameson's Sisters of Charity. 


INDIVIDUALITY. 275 


she makes all men Catholic, yet at the same time 
they lose nothing of their individual or national 
virtues. Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Ireland, 
Belgium, are all Catholic nations, yet how widely 
different in their personal and national character ! 
Can one imagine a wider difference than that 
which exists between the passionate, lively, and 
choleric Italian and the slow, grave and_philo- 
sophic German? What a difference between 
the sombre, stately, inflexible Spaniard, and the 
gay, affable, plastic Frenchman! Compare the 
warm-hearted, cheerful, all-enthusiastic Irishman 
with the quiet, steady, sedate Belgian. Yet 
these are nations that have been under Catholic 
influences from the cradle of their civilization. 
How strikingly have they not preserved all their 
national features, national virtues, national exist- 
ence! Indeed the Catholic Religion is the only 
religion which preserves the individuality of per- 
sons as well as the characters of nations. Alas! 
there was a time when England had a national 
character, and that was when she was under the 
healthful influences of Catholicity ;— England 
then was merry, renowned for her piety and re- 
ligious institutions. What is England renowned 
for now ? Sadness, impiety, ginshops, workhouses, 
and factories. 


* 


276 CATHOLICITY. 


What achange! A nation that under Cath- 
olic influences was called par excellence merry, 
now, under antagonistic influences, so far from be- 
ing merry, that hypochondria is treated of by their 
own medical writers under the title of “‘ the Eng- 
lish malady.” A nation which once was looked 
upon as a beautiful garden, studded as it was with 
its magnificent churches and glorious abbeys, now, 
with all its wealth, and all the exertions of late 
years in the way of church-building, does not pos- 
sess, and it is an English Protestant writer who 
declares it, “the number or near it of churches 
which existed at the time of the Reformation.” 
Well may we, in tones of pity and sympathy, join 
the same writer in singing :— 


Oh, the good old times of England: ere in her evil day 

From their holy faith and her ancient rites her people fell 
away, 

When her gentlemen had hands to give, and her yeomen 
hearts to feel, 

And they raised full many a bead-house, but never a bastile ; 

And the poor they honored, for they knew that He who for 
us bled, 

Had seldom when he came on earth whereon to lay his head. 


But times and things are altered now, and Englishmen begin 
To class the beggar with the knave, and poverty with sin. * 


INDIVIDUALITY. OTe 


We shut them up from tree and flower, and from the blessed 


sun, 
We tear in twain the hearts that God in wedlock had made 


one. 
No gentle Nun with transport sweet, no Friar standeth nigh 
With ghostly strength and holy love to close the poor man’s 


eye, 
But the corpse is thrown into its ground, when the prayers 


are hurried o’er, 
To rest in peace a little while, and then make room for more.* 


Thus on the one hand, we have Protestantism 
denying to man all that goes to make him a man, 
repudiating his nature, mutilating his faculties, 
and destroying all elevated personal and national 
character ; while, on the other hand, we find Cath- 
olicity calling forth all man’s slumbering powers, 
sustaining their action, and giving a full liberty, 
and her benediction to his individual exertions ; 
offering to every one a place for his activity in ac- 
cordance with his tastes and genius, and teaching 
him that he serves God by sanctifying his nature. 


* Hierolog. by Rey. J. M. Neale. 


XXX. 


Universality. 


“ Of all seeds 
This holy plain is filled, and in itself bears fruit 
That ne’er was plucked on other soil,” 
DANTE, 


T would seem that nothing further remains to 
be said on the Catholicity of the Church, after 
having exhibited its exquisite adaptation to the 
inborn faculties, tastes, characteristics, and genius 
as well of individuals as of nations, 

But man has aspirations and sympathies which 
are boundless in their reach, and cannot be con- 
fined to himself, to a family, or even to a nation. 
Humanity is not a word without meaning, but one 
which may. be so pronounced as to inspire men 
with a wonderful enthusiasm, and stir them up to 
noblest enterprises. Man is not fully conscious of 
the greatness of his manhood, until he is so engaged 


UNIVERSALITY. 279 


in purposes which embrace the welfare of the 
whole human race, as to sink in these all lower 
instincts. The highest aim of man is to live for 
God, and to labor for the universal welfare of 
“mankind. Nothing less than this can satisfy 
man’s noblest instincts and fill his large heart. 
His mind demands to know universal truth ; his 
heart craves universal love ; his will demands to 
act for universal ends. 

Such is man, and what has Protestantism done 
to answer to these all-expansive and most enno- 
bling instincts P The realm of universal truth it 
has broken to fragments, created wrangling sects, 
and made a desert in the mind. For universal 
sympathy it has caused countless dissensions, end- 
less disputes, and perfect isolation, making a void 
in the heart. For the universal aims of men, it 
has confined man’s aim to himself, and to the 
development of those instincts which he has in 
common with the animal, making the will the slave 
to self-gratification. This is what the glorious 
Reformation ef the sixteenth century has done for 
humanity. And enlightened men, who have no 
prejudice to serve, no selfish interest to sway their 
judgments, who have the cause of truth at heart, 
see it, proclaim it, and seek for a religion adequate 
to their wants. 


280 CATHOLICITY. 


It is the discovery of this fact that has led so 
many gifted and learned men from every depart- 
ment of science and of art, to return to the bosom 
of that Church which, in spite of the utmost efforts 
of her enemies, alone bears, as she has from early 
ages borne, the title of CATHOLIC. 

Were those men of recognized merit, out of 
every department of science and of art, who, even 
in our own day, have become converts to the 
Catholic faith, classified,—we should be forced to 
recognize in their conversion a voluntary and com- 
plete homage of the highest forms of truth to the 
Catholicity of the Church. Only within the Cath- 
olic Church are found the theologian and the 
philosopher, the statesman, the artist, and the man 
of science, combined in their efforts to demonstrate 
the same great truths, and express the same divine 
beauty. 

All truths of science find in her a welcome ; 
every work of art has in her. temples its own 
appropriate niche. It would take us too long to 
give a complete demonstration of this statement ; 
we must therefore confine ourselves to art, and art 
in its various forms of expression. The Catholic 
Church has always been true to art, and alone 
consecrates the works of genius to the noblest of 
purposes, the divine service of God. What more 


UNIVERSALITY. 281 


ennobling thought can inspire the true artist than 
that the fruits of his labor are consecrated by 
Religion, and employed in her worship to elevate 
less gifted souls to the contemplation of that sub- 
lime ideal which he has endeavored to embody in 
sensible forms ? Can the artist have a higher 
aim than to raise up the common mind to gaze 
upon that divine beauty which feeds his soul, and 
more than rewards him for his toil and sacrifices ? 
Does not this realize his holiest aspirations and 
largest sympathies ? 

Perish the creed that would shut out from its 
temples the works of God’s noblest gifts to man ; 
and an eternal warfare on the worship that would 
deprive men of those heaven-inspired aids by which 
the mind is enabled to gaze on the original of all 
that is true, good, and beautiful. 

Catholicity does not limit itself to the appro- 
priation of the noble productions of genius in her 
temples ; it does more ; it inspires genius with the 
highest and most noble conceptions. Art is the 
spontaneous expression of all the great original sys- 
tems of religion adopted by the human race. It 
is religion that has given birth to art in Egypt, 
Greece, ancient and modern Rome, Italy, Germany, 
and France. The temples, the statues, the paint- 
ings and great poems of both the ancient and the 


282 CATHOLIGITY. 


modern world, were consecrated to the honor of the 
religion which inspired the genius of the artists. 
It is to the sublime dogmas and the unrivalled 
heroes of Christianity, that the modern genius of 
art is indebted for its highest conceptions and 
embodiment’ of beauty. The more religious a 
people is, the more naturally the arts flourish 
amongthem. For art becomes a kind of necessity 
to a religious people, since it alone can satisfy the 
need which men feel, of clothing their highest in- 
spirations, of which Religion is the fountain source, 
with the highest form of sensible expression. 
Hence, Protestantism can give birth to no art ; 
because it is not a genuine religion ; it lacks 
originality ; it is precisely what its name imports, 
a negation. 

To copy either heathen or Catholic works is 
the best it can accomplish, and when its Wrens, 
Wests, Allstons, Thorwaldsens, Powers, Weirs, 
would have their genius enkindled, they are com- 
pelled to go to Rome. But as Catholicity diffuses 
itself art springs into life and flourishes naturally. 
For the Church is not only the patron, but the 
mother of the arts. It is under her divine influ- 
ence that all the nobler powers of the soul are 
stimulated into activity, and sustained. They 
therefore who rise to a more universal and higher 


UNIVERSALITY. 283 


perceptivity of the True, Good, and Beautiful, 
such as a Leibnitz, a Grotius, a Burke, a Sir 
Humphry Davy, a Novalis, are almost uncon- 
sciously disposed to be Catholic. This, too, is the 
secret of the conversion to Catholicity of so many 
lovers of the fine arts, and of men of refined and 
cultivated tastes. For all the higher and purer 
affinities of the soul are attracted to the Catholic 
Church as to their native and parent source. 

Christianity, to be a universal religion, and 
find a permanent home in man’s bosom, must not 
only answer his aspirations for universal truth and 
captivate his sense of beauty ; it must also satisfy 
the vast craving of his heart for universal com- 
munion. Expressing’ this instinct, an eloquent 
author says :— 

““Moral greatness did not die out with the 
apostles. Their lives were reported for this, 
among other ends, that their virtues might be 
propagated to future times, and that men might 
spring up as worthy a place among the canonized 
as themselves. What I wish 1s, that we should 
learn to regard ourselves as members of a vast 
spiritual community, as joint heirs and fellow- 
worshippers with the goodly company of Christian 
heroes who have gone before us, instead of immur- 
ing ourselves in particular churches. Our nature 


284. CATHOLIGCITY. 


delights in this consciousness of vast connections. 
This tendency manifests itself in the patriotic 
sentiment, and in the passionate clinging of men 
to great religious denominations. Its true and 
noblest gratification is found in the deep feeling 
of a vital, everlasting connection with the univer- 
sal Church, with the innumerable multitude of the 
holy on earth and in heaven.” * 

But does the Catholic religion so represent 
Christianity, as to afford that “‘ true and noblest 
gratification of the consciousness of vast connec- 
tions wherein our nature delights ?” Who shall 
give the answer so as to bring the truth home to 
the convictions of our readers ? Shall we speak, 
and tell how the noblest sensibilities of our nature, 
which hitherto had laid in a deathlike slumber, 
under its quickening influences, are awoke into 
energetic life and action? Shall we reveal how 
it enlarges the heart by its vast connections, makes 
man feel for man as his brother, and gives birth 
to a communion, while here, which was thought to 
be the privilege of heaven alone ? Shall we make 
known how it stimulates and sanctions the noble 
desire to live, to work, to sacrifice oneself, and to 
die, if needs be, for love of our fellow-men? But 
no; we leave our testimony to be recorded in such 


* Dr, Channing, vol. vy. 


UNIVERSALITY. 285 


a way that men cannot refuse to recognize its 
sincerity and truth—in deeds. Let the same 
author answer whether the Catholic Church meets 
the sentiments which he has expressed. 

“‘'The word Catholic,” he says, “‘ means uni- 
versal, Would to God that the Church, which 
has usurped the name, had understood the reality ! 
Still Romanism has done something to give its 
members the idea of the connection with that vast 
spiritual community, or Church, which has existed 
in all times and spread over all lands. It regards 
the memory of great and holy men who in all ages 
have toiled and suffered for Religion, asserts the 
honor of the heroes of faith, enshrines them in 
heaven as beatified saints, converts their legends 
into popular literature, appoints days to the cele- 
bration of their virtues, and reveals them as almost 
living to the age by the pictures in which genius 
has immortalized their deeds... She has given to 
her members the feelings of intimate relation to 
the highest and noblest men in all preceding ages. 
An interesting and often a sanctifying tie connects 
the present Roman Catholic with martyrs, con- 
fessors, and a host of men whose eminent piety 
and genius and learning have won for them an 
immortal fame. It is no mean service thus to 
enlarge men’s ideas and affections, to teach them 


286 CATHOLICITY. 


their connection with the grandest spirits of all 
ames,’ 

A capital acknowledgment that the Catholic 
Church has answered to man’s noblest sympathies, 
bating the fling at ‘‘ usurpation,” which, however, 
a Catholic mind will readily excuse, seeing that 
the author has told so much of truth. 

Men’s destinies are linked together, and are 
one. Man isolated from man withers, becomes 
decrepit, and dies. The Church, to be Catholic, 
must not only give to its members the idea of the 
connection with a ‘vast spiritual community,” 
but practically labor to bring about an universal 
brotherhood among men upon earth. How has 
the Catholic Church acted her part in this regard ? 

‘During the rough contests of the feudal 
tyrannies,” says Bancroft, “‘ of the middle ages, 
Religion had opened in the Church an asylum for 
the people. There the serf and the beggar could 
kneel ; there the pilgrim and the laborer were 
shrived ; and the children of misfortune, not less 
than the prosperous, were welcomed to the house 
of prayer. The Church was consequently at once 
the guardian of equality, and the nurse of the 
arts ; and the souls of Giotto, and Perugino, and 
Raphael, moved by an infinite sympathy with the 


* Dr, Channing, vol. v. 


UNIVERSALITY, 287 


crowd, kindled with divine conceptions of beautiful 
forms.” * | 

But this does not complete the moral harmo- 
nies of which the Catholic Church is the centre. 
Let another writer attempt to describe how she 
labored incessantly to make men feel that they 
were all of one kindred, and from barbarism 
brought forth civilized society—CHRISTENDOM., 

‘* In the history of the European, from the time 
of the Emperor Constantine to the 18th century, 
the ecclesiastical element so greatly preponderates 
as to constitute its almost essential feature ; and, 
after all, it is impossible to do justice to the effects 
which ensued on the establishment of Christianity, 
and its adoption by the white man as his religion. 
The civil law exerted an exterior power in human 
relations ; this produced an interior and moral 
change. The idea of an ultimate accountability 
for personal deeds, of which the old Europeans . 
had an indistinct perception, became intense and 
precise ; the sentiment of universal charity was 
exemplified not only in individual acts, the re- 
membrance of which soon passes away, but in the 
more permanent institution of establishments for 
the relief of affliction, the spread of knowledge, 
the propagation of truth. Of the great ecclesi- 


* Miscellanies, p. 418, 


288 CATHOLICITY. 


astics, many had risen from the humblest ranks 
of society, and these men, true to their democratic 
instincts, were often found to be the inflexible 
supporters of right against might. LEventually 
coming to be the depositaries of the knowledge 
that then existed, they opposed intellect to brute 
force, in many instances successfully ; and by the 
. example of the organization of the Church, which 
was essentially republican, they showed how repre- 
sentative systems may be introduced into the 
state. Nor was it over communities and nations 
that the Church displayed her chief power. Never 
in the world ,before was there such a system. 
From her central seat at Rome, her all-seeing eye, 
like that of Providence itself, could equally take 
in a hemisphere at a glance, or examine the pri- 
vate life of any individual. Her boundless influ- 
ence enveloped kings in their palaces, or relieved 
the beggar at the monastery gate. In all Europe 
there was not a man too obscure, too insignificant, 
or too desolate for her. Surrounded by her solem- 
nities, every one received his nathe at her altar ; 
her bells chimed at his marriage, her knell tolled 
at his funeral, she extorted from him the secrets 
of his life at her confessionals, and punished his 
faults by her penances. In his hour of sickfiess 
and trouble her seryants sought him out, teaching 


UNIVERSALITY. 289 


him, by her exquisite litanies and prayers, to place 
his reliance on God, or strengthening him for the 
trials of life by the example of the holy and just. 
Her prayers had an efficacy to give repose to the 
soul of his dead. When even to his friends his 
lifeless body had become an offence, in the name 
of God she received it into her consecrated ground, 
and under her shadow he rested till the great 
reckoning day. From little better than a slave 
she raised his wife to be his equal, and forbidding 
him to have more than one, met her recompense 
for those noble deeds in a firm friend at every fire- 
side. Discountenancing all impure love, she put 
round that fireside the children of one mother, 
and made that mother little less than sacred in 
their eyes. In ages of lawlessness and rapine, 
among people but a step above savages, she vindi- 
cated the inviolability of her precincts against the 
hand of power, and made her temples a refuge and 
sanctuary for the despairing and oppressed. Truly 
she was the shadow of a great rock in many a 
weary land!” * 

Thus did the Catholic Church break down 
those barriers which separated man from man, and » 
struggle in the midst of darkness to realize the 
sublime idea of a universal brotherhood of men 
upon earth. 


13 


* Draper’s Physiology, p. 625, 


290 CATHOLIGCITY. 


The divine charm which she exercised over 
men’s minds, is broken; the bonds of universal 
sympathy with which she bound men’s hearts, are 
snapt asunder, but she is one and unchangeable. 
She knows no past, no wrinkles form upon her 
heaven-inspired brow, no age tarnishes. her celes- 
tial beauty ; for, though ancient, yet she is always 
new, because Divine. 

The cry for Universal Communion ! for Pro- 
gress ! for Universal Restoration ! for Humanity ! 
stirs men’s hearts, thrills their blood through their 
veins, and nerves their arms to enterprises for the 
welfare of the human race. Experience demon- 
strates that individual exertions are too weak to 
accomplish universal ends. Men look around them 
in distress for an organization with power fitted to 
the realization of their lofty aspirations, noble 
hopes, and immense desires. The divine society of 
the Catholic Church, the only great and grand in- 
stitution handed down from age to age unimpaired, 
the mother of modern civilization, the founder of 
Christendom, the genius which inspired the great 
crusades, looms up before their eyes in all the 
strength of Unity, in all the majesty of Catho- 
licity, in all the beauty of Holiness, as the only 
hope Humanity has for the Future. 

Lovers of your race, cheer up! the enthusiasm 


UNIVERSALITY. 291 


which enkindled the hearts of men, of women, and 
of even little children, to battle in armies against 
the enemies of Christian civilization ; the love 
that inspired men and women to live and die for 
God and Humanity, beats as strong and as lively 
now as then in the bosom of God’s Church. Men 
of the Future ! the sky brightens, the day of hope 
will come ; and the human race, under her divine 
guidance, will march as one man to its Divine 
Destiny. 


XXXI. 


Church. 


“ A castle strongly built, and eminent, 
Above Time’s battle-plain, defaced and gory 3 
A palace where, in robes of kingly glory, 


Our spirits rest.” 
; DE VERE. 


oe in his ordinary providence, does not pre- 
sent immediately to men’s mind’s the truths 
of Revelation. For this purpose he employs the 
usual channels of communicating truth to visible 
organs. In accordance with this principle, God 
took a material body with visible organs to make 
known his Religion to men. Now the Church 
stands in relation to men as the body of Christ 
did, a means of conveying to men the truths of 
Divine Revelation by visible organs. This is the 
reason why the Church is called in Holy Writ, 
“the Body of Christ.” | 


CHURCH. 293 


It is not possible that the truths of Divine 
Revelation should be transmitted from generation 
to generation, through different nations, climes, 
and forms of political society, without any alter- 
ations or additions to the end of time, except 
through a visible organ, which is made by the power 
of God, independent of and above the sway and 
influence of human passions and interests. 

A Revelation which is not so guarded and 
preserved, eventually will lose its divine character, 
and open the door to feelings of incertitude and 
doubt, and fail to give that security to our re- 
ligious convictions which Reason demands. 

A Church which professes to be charged with 
the office of teaching the truths of the Christian 
Revelation, and which is not provided with the 
Divine promise never to fall into error, or be sub- 
ject to corruptions, is only fit to address upon 
their eternal interests, men who have never exer- 
cised their thinking faculties, or who are wholly 
indifferent about their future welfare. 

Of all assumptions of power that were ever 
heard of, the most arrogant and awful is that 
which, without an unerring and divine sanction, 
makes the profession of teaching to mankind the 
way of eternal salvation. This is an unbearable 
imposition, and should be resisted by every man 


294 CATHOLIGCITY. 


who retains his manhood, and would not rashly 
expose his soul to eternal perdition. 

Any reformation of the Christian Religion 
after it was established once for all, by its Divine 
Author, presupposes that Christianity was not a 
final and complete revelation, or that He lacked 
the power to establish it on an imperishable basis. 

But the Author of Christianity, in founding 
his Church, promised that the gates of hell should 
not prevail against it, and that He would be with 
it until the end of ages ; this left no pretext con- 
sistent with a belief in his Divine character or bis 
honesty, for a reformation or a protest against His 
Church. 

Hence those men who have protested against 
the Church of Christ, from Arius to Luther, were 
actuated by the spirit of Anti-Christ. And in 
view of the fatal effects of the religious revolution 
of the Reformation, the Protestant Kirchoff says : 
“TI would not know how to produce any solid 
argument against any one who should proclaim 
Luther the forerunner of the age of Anti-Christ.” 

The necessity of the Church, and of its divine 
character, is twofold. For Christianity is not only 
a complete system of divinely revealed truths, 
answering to the otherwise insoluble questions of. 


CHURCH. 295 


Reason, opening to its eye the glorious destiny of 
the soul, it is also the source of Divine Life. 
Hence Christ says, “I am the vine; you the 
branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, 
the same beareth much fruit ; for without me ye 
can do nothing.” * Christ being both the Light 
and the Life of men, the Church must both en- 
lighten the mind and vitalize the heart. 

But life is organic. There is no other life 
traceable. An organic visible body, exempt from 
all liability to decay or corruption, is therefore 
necessary to transmit this Divine Life in its purity 
from one generation to another, until the end of 
time. 

Since we cannot conceive of Life, nor of its 
transmission and preservation, otherwise than in 
its incorporation into a visible organism, it follows 
we can have no real vital communion with Christ, 
except in connection with his body, the Church. 

The Church is therefore a visible organic body 
instituted by Christ to teach those Divine Truths, 
and convey that Divine Life to men, which moved 
- Him to come down from heaven, and unite His 
Godhead to our manhood in one personality in the 
flesh. 

The Church is the body of Christ, the organ 


* St. John, ¢. xv. 


296 CATHOLICITY. 


of Divine Light and Life to men, and the idea 
of an invisible Church is a sheer piece of subter- 
fuge to escape her claims to allegiance, to reject 
Christianity, and still pass for a Christian. 


XXXIT. 


Authority. 


“ Teach no men to be slaves, 
But with high minds obey.” 
F. W. FasBer. 


HERE maybe some readers of these pages 

who do not understand how a Catholic can 
consistently uphold the authority of Reason, and 
at the same time maintain as strenuously the 
authority of the Catholic Church. They have 
been taught, or led to believe, that Reason and the 
Church were antagonistic ; that to be a Catholic 
was blindly to submit Reason to exterior authority, 
to abandon conscience to the direction of her 
priests, and that by so doing one might rest en- 
tirely secure of his future welfare. 

Kivery instructed person knows, or ought to 
know, that there are several primary, independent, 


13% 


298 CATHOLICITY. 


and authoritative sources of truth. Among others, 
and the first, is Reason; then, there is the Holy 
Ghost dwelling in the heart ; also exterior divine 
Revelation ; and besides these, the Church. . Hach 
of these sources of truth is unerring, as they 
have God for their origin; and cannot conflict 
with each other. Within their proper limits 
they confirm each other, and afford a mutual sup- 
port; and Catholicity, which means universal 
truth, includes these several authorities acting in 
perfect harmony, and producing in the minds of 
her believers a most firm and entire conviction of 
the truths which she teaches, 

As regards the authority of Reason, this has 
been sufficiently explained in what has preceded. 
Not a single step can be made in the advance 
towards truth without the open or tacit admission 
of her unerring authority. Jesus Christ constantly 
appealed to the decisions of Reason in favor of his 
divine mission, and in defence of his doctrines. 
His Apostles followed his example, and affirmed the 
authority of Reason by counselling their disciples 
to ‘‘try the spirits” and “‘ prove all things.” The 
Pontiffs and Councils of the Church have been no 
less jealous of the authority and rights of Reason. 
They have ever sustained these by their decisions, 
and by condemning those who would depreciate 


AUTHORITY. 299 


the value of Reason ; knowing full well that a 
religion not founded on the convictions of Reason 
is worthless, degrading to man and displeasing to 
God. 

Christ not only appealed to the authority of 
Reason in support of his religion, he also promised 
to send to his disciples the Paraclete, the Holy 
Ghost, which should lead them into all truth, and 
to come with his heavenly Father, and make their 
hearts the dwelling place of the most august 
Trinity.“ Now, it will not answer to profess to 
believe the teachings of Christ as the words of 
divine Truth, and ignore the authority of the 
Holy Ghost indwelling in the soul. 

This is good Protestantism, some one may 
suppose, and even say that sentiments of such a 
nature clash with the doctrines and spirit of the 
Romish Church. 

Be not so ready, indulgent reader, in drawing 
conclusions. A religion which teaches the ‘‘ total 
depravity” of Human Nature excludes necessarily 
the authority of Reason, and there is no conceiv- 
able method by which a soul, wholly corrupt, can 
ever become a fit dwelling place of the All-pure 
and Holy One. Purity of heart and interior life 
is impossible on Protestant principles, and union 


* John ec, 14: 


300 CATHOLIOCITY. 


of the soul with God an abomination. Jor sanc- 
tification, in the Protestant sense, is nothing else 
than the covering over of man’s inherent corrup- 
tion with the cloak of Christ’s righteousness. 

Sanctification, according to Catholic principles, 
is entirely different. It is an intrinsic work of 
grace, Which restores the soul to its primitive 
purity, and adorns it with its ancient beauty, 
making it thus a fit temple of the Holy Ghost. 

This is evident from the perusal of any of the 
writings of the spiritual authors of the Catholic 
faith. Let one here suffice :— 

‘““God alone,” says Father Lallement, “ has 
right of sovereignty over hearts. Neither secular 
powers nor the church herself extend their domin- 
ion thus far. What passes there depends not on 
them. There God alone is king. It is his own 
proper realm. There he establishes his throne of 
grace. This interior kingdom it is that constitutes 
his glory. Our perfection and our happiness con- 
sist in the subjection of our hearts to this empire 
of God.” 

“‘ Our perfection depends wholly on the fideli- 
ty with which we have codperated with the move- 
ments of the Holy Ghost and followed his guidance, 
and we may say that the sum of the spiritual life 
consists in observing the ways and the movements 


AUTHORITY. 301 


of the Spirit of God in our soul, and in fortifying 
them, employing for this purpose all the exercise 
of prayer, spiritual reading, sacraments, the prac- 
' tice of virtues and good works.” 

“We ought to receive every inspiration as a 
word of God, proceeding from His wisdom, His 
mercy, His infinite goodness, and capable of 
operating in us marvellous effects, if we put no 
obstacle in its way. . . . It would draw us out of 
our moral nothingness to a supernatural participa- 
tion in the beatitude of God.” * 

The whole body of doctrine on spiritual life in 
the Catholic Church is based upon the fact of the 
indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of her 
faithful children. So sacred does the Catholic 
Church hold this inward oracle of the Truth, and 
of such authority, that the soul, refusing to believe 
in its divine communications, would be no less 
guilty of the sin of infidelity and disobedience, 
than if she refused to believe the recorded revela- 
tion of Holy Writ, or resisted the divinely-consti- . 
tuted authority of the Church itself. Sanctity, in 
the Catholic sense, consists in faithfully following 
in all our thoughts, affections, and actions, the 
suggestions of the Holy Ghost. In short, Catho- 
licity inaugurates the inward oracle of the soul, 
and claims for its dictates a divine authority. 

* The Spiritual Doctrine, pp. 41, 132, 157. 


302 CATHOLICITY. 


But we shall be asked ‘ What else was Prot- 
estantism than the rising up of the human mind 
against the crushing tyranny exercised .by Rome 
over the souls of men ? ” 

We suppose the Reader has read the foregoing 
chapter on the necessity and Divine authority of 
the Church, and we suppose also that there is no 
reason to show that the Catholic Church holds 
most firmly to the Divine Revelation of Holy Writ. 
If this be granted, then we have four distinct 
sources of religious truth, namely, Reason, the 
Holy Ghost in the soul, the Bible, and the Church. 
Now, if the Church be a divine authority, whose 
office is not to increase but define and. confirm the 
divinely-revealed truths, its exercise can but be 
consonant with Reason, the inward light of the 
Holy Ghost, and Sacred Scripture. The idea of 
any clashing between them is absurd, and can 
never enter an intelligent and well-regulated mind. 

Failing to see this divinely-constituted order, 
men otherwise intelligent, form the most extrava- 
gant, absurd, and even monstrous notions concern- 
ing the Catholic Religion. Even the most dis- 
tinguished among Protestants, seldom if ever rise 
in their vision to the view of the sublime harmony 
of Christianity as developed by the Catholic Church. 
They seem to believe that Reason and Religion 

ZL0F . 


AUTHORITY. 303 


are opposed to each other, and that the only road 
to Religion is by subjugating or sacrificing Reason. 
Thus M. Guizot, in speaking of the relations of 
Reason and Iteligion, says :— 

“In the natural order, man exercises a part 
of the action and of the power ; but, in the super- 
natural order, he has only to make an act of self- 
submission.” * 

If M. Guizot means by this that “‘ man exer- 
cises no part of the action and of the power,” in 
accepting the supernatural order, this would en- 
tirely exclude Reason from the sphere of Christi- 
anity ; and Religion without Reason is super- 
stition, is fanaticism, and the degradation of man. 
There is a different kind of exercise of Reason in 
the natural order from that of the supernatural 
order ; but one is no less a “part of the action 
and of the power” of Reason than the other. If 
any distinction is to be made, it is in favor of the 
exercise of Reason in the supernatural order, for 
there it has for its object the highest order of 
truth, and, therefore, its most sublime exercise and 
assertion. From this point of view M. Guizot’s 
statement is incorrect. Again, there is not only 
an intelligent exercise of Reason in the acceptance 
of the supernatural order, but to a certain degree 


* Etudes Morales. 


304. CATHOLIGCITY. 


an exercise of Reason on the truths so received. 
For all supernatural truths have an intelligible 
side to our natural Reason, and therefore our Rea- 
son may be, and should be, exercised on them ; 
and when it is elevated by grace to the super- 
natural order, it is wonderful how much of the 
supernatural becomes intelligible. The statement 
therefore that ‘‘man in the supernatural order 
has only to make an act of self-submission,” is an 
injustice done to the rights of Reason, and conveys 
a false and injurious impression of the nature of 
Christianity. 

The same distinguished writer makes in the 
same connection another statement no less errone- 
ous and injurious to the true principles of Christi- 
anity. 

‘“* Authority,” he says, “is the appanage of 
Religion: Liberty that of Philosophy.” * 

There is in this a twofold error ; for Religion 
has no less need of liberty than philosophy has 
need of authority. Religion without liberty is a 
sheer imposition and tyranny ; philosophy, without 
the authority of first principles, is downright im- 
becility. Religious homage, to be agreeable to 
God, must spring from the free assent of a reason- 
able creature, and philosophy cannot take a single 


* Tbid. 


AUTHORITY. 305 


step in the discovery of truth without admitting, 
in advance, the authority of certain given primary 
truths. 

Strange to say, that the fundamental errors 
broached by Luther, and which are found in our 
examination of Protestantism, that Christianity is 
antagonistic to Reason and the liberty of the Will, 
should serve as the basis of such an enlightened 
and cultivated intellect as that of M. Guizot! 

An eloquent writer, in reply to M. Guizot, 
asks, “‘ What is Christianity P It is authority. 
What is Protestantism? It is free-inquiry.” * 

By Christianity the above writer means Cath- 
olicity, and Catholicity by no means excludes or 
forbids free-inquiry. Catholic authority upholds 
man’s right to free-inquiry in all that is possible 
for man to know. ‘This was shown in the chapters 
twenty-three and four, on Reason, and by the 
words of the present reigning Pontiff. And what 
is this saying but an evident truth, that it is the 
duty of every reasonable being to cultivate his 
intellectual faculties, by the acquisition of the 
knowledge of all that may be known. To pretend 
to free-inquiry in matters which le beyond the 
grasp of our intellectual faculties, is the proclama- 
tion of folly. Catholicity, therefore, unites divine 
authority with perfect free-inquiry. 


* Louis Veuillot. 


306 CATHOLICITY. 


But we are at a loss to discover how “ Protes- 
tantism” can be called “ free-inquiry” when it 
denies to man the possession of Reason, denies the 
liberty of Will, and insists upon his total depravity. 
Nor can we understand if this be the deplorable 
state of man, of what use free-inquiry would be to 
him. Free-inquiry, on Protestant principles, is as 
impossible as it is absurd. 

Our readers must not think us fastidious in 
dwelling on these points, for the force of the whole 
discussion turns on the question, What is Re- 
ligion ? What is Protestantism ? 

““ What is Protestantism ?” asks a celebrated 
Catholic writer. ‘If there be any thing constant 
in Protestantism,” he replies, “it is undoubtedly 
the substitution of private judgment for public 
authority. This is, properly speaking, its funda- 
mental principle.” * 

If the illustrious Balmes intended in this defi- 
nition to convey the idea that the Catholic Church 
suppresses the free and lawful exercise of private 
judgment, he undoubtedly spoke incorrectly. 
Catholicity addresses itself to our private judgment, 
and on its decision the whole edifice of Religion is 
raised. Private judgment is personal judgment, 
and its exercise is involved in the idea of putting 


* Balmes. 


AUTHORITY. 307 


it aside, Protestantism did not therefore assert 
the right of private judgment, for its exercise had 
always and ever must exist. There is no con- 
ceivable way of getting rid of it, if desired. 

This is acknowledged by Protestants. ‘‘ One 
often hears it said,” writes Thomas Carlyle, ‘ that 
Protestantism introduced a new era radically dif- 
ferent from any the world had ever seen before : 
the era of ‘private judgment’ as they call it. 
This ‘private judgment’ at bottom is not a new 
thing in the world. There is nothing generically 
new or peculiar in the Reformation . . . Liberty 
of ‘ private judgment,’ if we will consider, must at 
all times have existed in the world. Dante had 
not put out his eyes, or tied shackles on himself ; 
he was at home in that Catholicity of his, a free- 
seeing soul in it.” * 

Protestantism was not then the substitution 
of something which before was not, or which was 
not in an undisturbed possession of its rightful 
sphere of activity. Our lamented author did not 
perhaps intend to say that it was. 

What, then, is Protestantism ? Protestant- 
_ ism, in its practical development, is the exaggera- 
tion of the authority of private judgment to the 
entire exclusion of all other authorities. 


* Heroes, 


308 CATHOLICITY. 


The truth of this is demonstrated by its his- 
tory. The first decided step of Protestantism was 
necessarily the denial of the Divine Authority of 
the Church ; for if the Church had not erred, there 
could be no grounds for an opposition to it. The 
second step of Protestantism was the denial of the 
divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, especially 
of those parts, which supported the doctrines of 
the Church so plainly that they left no possible 
means of perverting that meaning. Hence Luther 
began by rejecting the Epistle of St. James, since 
it so plainly teaches that man is not justified by 
faith alone, Luther’s opinion, but by faith and 
works, the Catholic doctrine. And he also threw 
strong suspicions on several other portions of Holy 
Writ. His disciples, following his example with 
their pitiless exegesis, have either left nothing 
standing of the Bible as authentic, except its two 
covers, or, aS with others who take a different 
route, have left its contents untouched, but de- 
stroyed its authority, by proving to a demon- 
stration that it is nothing but a myth—an old 
wife’s Fable. And, as the last expression of gen- 
uine Protestantism, the modern German _philoso- 
phers who plume themselves on the title of being 
the truest children of Luther, proclaim that “ God 
is only man’s intuition of his own nature,” 


AUTHORITY. 309 


Thus Protestantism, by force of the exaggera- 
tion of the authority of private judgment, has 
overthrown every other authority, and ends by 
deifying it, in declaring “ Man is his own God : 
Homo sibi Deus!” 

But each of these authorities has its perfect 
expression in Catholicity, revolving around the 
authority of the Church as their centre in perfect 
harmony. Hence it is that ‘the Catholic, and 
he alone, has within him that union of external, 
with internal notes of God’s favor, which sheds the 
hght of conviction over his soul, and makes him 
fearless in his faith, and calm and thankful in his 
hope.” * 3 

There are those perhaps who will say that 
““the Catholic Church of the nineteenth century 
respects Reason and the inward witness to truth, 
but this she has learned from Protestantism. And 
her present attitude in this regard, far from being 
real and sincere, springs from her deep and usual 
crafty policy.” 

This needs no other refutation than the fact 
that the Catholic Church held, long before Protes- 
tantism was dreamed of, precisely the same doc- 
trines she holds now. As a specimen of her spirit, 
we shall give a short extract from the writings of 


* Newman. 


310 CATHOLICITY. 


Mother Juliana, an anchorite nun, who lived in 
the time of King Edward the Third, three centu- 
ries before the so-called Reformation :— 

“‘ By three things,” she says, ‘“‘man standeth 
in this life: by which three God is worshipped, 
and we be spede, kept, and saved. The first is, 
use of man’s kindly Reason. The second is, the 
common teaching of Holy Church. The third is, 
the gracious working of the Holy Ghost. God is 
the ground of our kindly Reason ; and God is the 
teaching of the Holy Church ; and God is the Holy 
Ghost. And all the sundry gifts to which He will 
we have regard, and according us thereto: for 
these work in us continually altogether, and these 
be great things.” * 

The effect of Protestantism on the Catholic 
Church was thus to call forth her energies in de- 
fence of those truths which were attacked. As 
the divine authority of the Church was the first 
which was attacked by Protestants, this was the 
first which demanded a defence from Catholics. 
When the authority of Reason was denied, she 
was there to uphold its claims. As the Champion 
of Truth, she was ready to defend its cause when- 
ever, wherever, and by whomsoever attacked. One 
has but to read the decisions of her Pontiffs and 
Councils to be fully convinced of this, 


* Revelation of Divine Love. 


AUTHORITY. 311 


The Catholic truth having at length been suc- 
cessfully defended against the assaults of the 
countless errors of the sixteenth century, the 
Church will stand forth with a greater conscious- 
ness of her possession of the truth, and continue 
her Divine mission in the world with more than 
her former splendor, 


XXXII. 


Appliances. 


* With solemn forms, benign solicitudes, 
But each a sacramental type and pledge 
Of Grace, the Church inweaves a sheltering hedge 
Around her garden vale.”—Ds& VFRE. 


T has been shown in the last two chapters that 
we are required to observe the ceremonies of 
religious worship. Hitherto we have taken our 
point of vision from Human Nature ; let us con- 
tinue to do so, and see what relation these appli- 
ances of Religion bear to it. 
Men are not angels, and what constitutes man 
a distinct being in the order of creation, is the 
possession of an immortal, spiritual soul, with a 
perishable, material body. Our bodies, as we all 
know, are gifted by their Creator with what are 
called the senses, through which, as through win- 


AUTHORITY. oe 


dows, the soul looks out upon, and comes in con- 
tact with the world around it. And through the 
same avenues, the outward returns, stamping 
indelibly its impression on the soul, and exciting 
its deepest emotions. 

Men are also aware of the psychological fact, 
that the imagination has a powerful influence in 
swaying their actions, and even their judgments. 
Now, the imagination is closely allied to the senses, 
and is easily exerted through them. 

Hence these torch-light processions, these 
popular songs and loud hurrahs, preceding a popu- 
lar election. By such machinery the senses are 
struck, the imagination excited, and an enthusiasm 
enkindled in the hearts of men. And, other things 
being equal, the most successful results have been 
attained by the most effective appeals of this 
kind. 

Why this military dress and martial music— 
a people’s national air, its flag, eagle, lion, lily P 
What mean these things? Lo, the battle field ! 
the cry, ‘‘to arms!” the flag unfurled! the 
nation’s music and watchward sounded forth, 
Liberty! the Queen! |’Hmpereur! And now 
the men whose blood before flowed sluggishly 
through their veins, are at a flash alive with fiery 
courage, brave as lions, reckless of danger or death, 

14 


314 CATHOLICITY. 


and with every nerve strained, every heart beating 
as with one pulsation, they rush into the conflict. 
What now has so transformed these men into 
heroes? Was it some instrument mighty in itself ? 
By no means ; a flag ts but a piece of bunting— 
no more, A national song is only a few vibrations 
of the air—nothing else. The eagle is a simple 
fowl, of the genus falco. Ah, but tread upon 
that piece of bunting with contempt, and you 
will arouse the fiercest passions of resentment ! 
Those simple vibrations of the air have the power, 
when felt, to move and arouse the passions of an 
entire people. A nation’s genius and affections 
are so embodied in that eagle, that the sight of it 
alone will animate a whole army to the highest 
pitch of enthusiasm and heroic valor. 

Such is Human Nature, and such are the 
influences brought to bear upon men for the 
achievement of the mightiest results. 

Surely, then, if it be the great end of Religion 
to direct heavenward all our energies to their sub- 
lime destiny, it ought not carelessly to overlook 
or regard with contempt such powerful auxiliaries 
for controlling and swaying men. A Religion 
which has man’s highest interests at heart, will do 
its utmost to engage these common instincts of 
our nature to aid in the accomplishment of its 


APPLIANCES, 315 


beneficent and glorious purposes, especially when 
it is considered that not only are all men more or 
less influenced by the senses and imagination, but 
that most men are so constituted, that these, and 
the affections and passions immediately connected 
with them, act a predominant part in their lives. 
They are by far more impressed by what appeals 
to the senses than by what addresses Reason. 
Now, if Religion would do its duty towards this, 
by far the larger class of men, it must reach their 
higher nature through these exterior avenues. 

Religion, therefore, in order to fulfil its divine 
mission towards man, must not only present to 
him satisfactory solutions of the dark problems of 
Reason, she must also by the fitness and splendor 
of her Worship captivate his senses and imagina- 
tion, and thus lead him to consecrate his whole 
being to God. 

Before we explain, however, the relations which 
the Catholic Worship bears to this aspect of 
Human Nature, let us see what Protestantism 
says to it. How does Protestantism propose to 
meet these essential wants? Does it give a wel- 
come to them, or does it exclude them from its 
sanctuary with an unnatural and hostile spirit ? 

The votaries of the Great Reformation, in their 
zeal for purifying Christian Worship, plundered 


316 CATHOLIOGCITY. 


or destroyed in the houses of God all that was 
costly and beautiful, that is, all that was calcu- 
lated to charm the senses and captivate the 
imagination, and direct the soul heavenward. 
Alas ! their zeal was not satisfied with this ; they 
attacked the rites and ceremonies, many of which 
were instituted by the Saviour, and others hallow- 
ed by the practice of the apostles and the early 
Christians. These were denounced as_ being 
grossly superstitious and damnably idolatrous. 
Christian worship was reduced, in many cases, to 
the delivery of a dull and prolix sermon, with a 
hymn at the commencement and the close, led off 
by a sexton with a nasal twang; and this was 
called, forsooth, ‘‘a godly worship,” while others 
carried out the Protestant view of Christian 
worship to its logical results by abolishing the 
priesthood, and cast aside all sacraments, ceremo- 
nies, customs, and religious rites. 

Thus, Protestantism, by repudiating religious 
ceremonies, has unfeelingly left an essential and 
important part of man’s nature unprovided for, 
and by this meagre and one-sided view of Chris- 
tianity has deprived itself of the most powerful and 
popular means of making men Christians, and 
leading them to the great end of their existence. 
And now, how stands the case with Catholicity ? 


APPLIANCES. 317 


Does she regard this aspect of our nature with a 
friendly eye, endeavor to meet its demands, and 
spiritualize and elevate these instincts by holy 
influences to the highest and purest aims P 

Who can describe the perfect and complete 
adaptation of Catholic Worship to the instinctive 
tastes and longings of man’s nature ? 


“For not of earthly moulding are her forms.” 


What words can convey the impressions not 
unfrequently made on beholding even the material 
Temple of Catholic Worship, whose walls are 
adorned with the most precious works of genius, 
inspired by her own faith and love, and in which 
her marvellous Ritual is realized in stone P 
Whatever be one’s creed, few can stand before her 
altars without experiencing a sentiment of religious 
awe, and something akin to a benediction. ‘ No 
one,’ says Madame de Staél, “ ever enters into 
the Catholic Churches without feeling an emotion 
which does the soul good, and like a sacred ablu- 
tion imparts to it strength and its word.” * 

“Happy are they,” writes another, in a simi- 
lar strain, ‘‘ whose faith needs no such appliances, 
who feel the overshadowing presence of God alike 
in solitude and society, upon the mountain top, in 


* De Lalle. tom, 1, p. 64. 


318 CATHOLIGCITY. 


the market-place, in the tasteless parish church, 
and around the domestic hearth. But with most 
of us the world is too much present. Its cares 
engross ; its pleasures intoxicate ; its sorrows and 
disappointments oppress us. Few are the mo- 
ments in which our spirits lie exposed to the 
highest influences, neither darkened by despair, 
nor giddy through self-confidence, nor influenced 
by earth-born passions. For nature, conscious of 
inborn struggle, of wings that are often clogged, and 
sometimes paralyzed—these glorious structures 
are reared! ‘Their walls and spaces seem yet 
instinct with the love and faith that laid the 
stones and carved the saints. .Transient and soon 
effaced as the impression which they leave may 
be, they are yet aids and allies for which he who 
is most conscious of his weakness will be the 
most grateful.” * 

If the material Temples of the Catholic Faith 
have so religious an influence on the mind, and 
that it has a non-catholic witness ought to be 
satisfactory proof, how much greater must be that 
of her ancient Rites and sacred Ceremonies! In 
proof of this let a philosopher speak :— 

““Happy are they,” says the eloquent Cousin, 
“who at Rome, at the Vatican, in the solemnities 

* Hillard’s Italy, vol. 2, 1853. 


APPLIANCES. 319 


of the Catholic Worship, have heard the melodies 
of Leo, of Durante, of Pergolese, from the old 
consecrated text. They have had a moment’s 
glimpse of heaven, their soul may have entered 
therein without distinction of rank, of country, of 
even belief, by the degrees which itself would 
choose, by wings invisible and mysterious, com- 
posed and tissued, so to speak, of all simple, nat- 
ural, universal sentiments, which, on all points of 
the earth, draw from the breast of the human 
creature a sigh towards the other world.” * 

Now let us give place to the testimony of a 
Protestant Presbyterian minister in favor of the 
effect of Catholic Worship. 

“T often go,” says the Rev. H. M. Field, “to 
the convent of Trinita dei Monti, to hear the nuns 
sing their evening hymn, and it would be quite 
impossible for me to describe the effect upon my 
feelings. I listen till my heart dissolves. It 
seems as if some choir of the Blessed were chant- 
ing a celestial hymn ; as if that tender and plain- 
tive melody, which comes to bear up my soul from 
gloom, were the distant music of Angels, 

“ Ofttimes, too, at such hour, I see the most 
simple and earnest devotion kneeling on the pave- 
ment of the Church. I ask no questions, but 


* Du yrai et de lart, 


320 CATHOLIOCITY. 


there is a look that tells me that the thoughts of 
the worshipper are fixed on something beyond the 
world,—a look of sorrow and yet of peace. And 
often I say to myself, as I see men and women 
who have led a life of extreme poverty or suffering 
kneeling on the Church floor: While we sneer at 
their worship, these poor beings are ascending to 
heaven.” * 

Volumes might be filled with the testimony 
of Protestants to illustrate the religious effective- 
ness of Catholic Devotions ; but we can give only 
one more, and that from a Methodist preacher. 

“Tt is difficult for a Protestant,” says Dr. 
Durbin, “unaccustomed to the pomp and pa- 
geantry of the Catholic service in Europe, to con- 
ceive of the power over the imagination and feel- 
ings of the multitude, nay, even of cultivated 
minds, educated in the midst of these magical 
associations. Luther says himself, that while 
walking next the Host in a procession, the thought 
that the Lord himself was present suddenly struck 
his imagination, and so overawed him, that it was 
with difficulty he went forward ; a cold sweat 
came over him; he staggered, and thought he 
should die in the agony of fear. What, then, must 
the illiterate multitude feel, whose faith obeys im- 


* A Letter from Rome. 


APPLIANCES. ODE 


plicitly the impression made upon. the senses ? 
And in cultivated minds, in proportion to the nat- 
ural feeling of the individual, and the depth of his 
belief in these representations, will be the inten- 
sity of his devotion under their influence. Nay, 
even for an enlightened Protestant there is an 
elevation and majesty in many of these forms, 
pressing into their service as they do the mighty 
influence of the higher arts, filling the eye with 
images of beauty, and the ear with the richest 
tones of harmony, that enchain his attention, and 
captivate his imagination.” * 

These minds, so appreciative of the influence 
and impressiveness of the Catholic Worship, are 
only in the outward courts of her temples. What 
would they experience were their souls flooded 
with sufficient light to see in all their wonderful 
significance these tremendous mysteries, and their 
hearts open to receive the exquisite consolations 
which these solemn ceremonies express and con- 
vey ! . 

Let us enter, with such a one, a Catholic 
Church, but let us select one of those noble struc- 
tures which stand forth so grandly as emblems of 
Catholic Faith, piety and genius. The high- 
wrought vaulted roof, the tall aspiring arches, the 


* Observations in Europe, p. 73. 


14% 


B29 CATHOLIOCITY. 


angels with their outspread wings, as if guarding 
with their sculptured beauty the sacred treasures 
within, the statues of the holy Apostles, martyrs 
and saints, in attitude of heavenly contemplation 
or ecstatic love ; the stained windows with their 
beautifully executed Scripture stories, and as we 
advance, appearing above the great altar the image 
of our crucified Saviour, looking down with the 
suffering love and pity which God alone can feel ; 
the tomb-shaped altar and the lighted tapers, car- 
rying us back to the shrines of the martyrs upon 
which the primitive Christians offered up the sac- 
rifice in the dark Catacombs of Rome ; flowers the 
most generous and gracious of nature’s, gifts, with 
their beauty and fragrance embellishing the altar 
where bread and wine, nature’s flesh and blood, 
await the offering,—the moment now has arrived 
for the great sacrifice to begin,—preceded by 
white-robed boys swinging their silver censers, 
enter the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, with 
folded hands, and robed in vestments of gorgeous 
hues and richest textures ; the high-bornswoman 
and lowly peasant, the master and the slave, the 
learned and the illiterate, gray-headed old age and 
rosy youth, the sick and the sorrowful, the clean 
and the unclean, all classes without distinction of 
ranks or race before the Catholic altar kneeling side 


APPLIANCES. 323 


by side, all equal in the presence of that crucified 
God, only more precious in His sight the humblest 
and poorest of them all. 

But the Sacrifice has begun, the Priest at the 
foot of the altar has made the sign of the Cross 
upon his breast, invoking the names of the most 
holy Trinity ; subdued strains of the organ are 
floating among the graceful arches, clouds of in- 
cense ascend as in solemn but varied tones the 
prayers, the Epistle, and the Gospel are sung ; in 
joyous notes the Priest intones the ‘‘ Gloria in 
Hixcelsis,” whilst the choir takes up and continues 
to the end in exultant strains this angelic hymn 
of praise ; in more earnest strains begins the 
** Creflo,” and right well is it that this should be 
sung, as this ‘‘ Credo” is the elementary expres- 
sion not only of the true, but also of the good and 
beautiful. 

The most solemn part of this august Sacrifice 
now commences by the Priest’s chanting the 
“ Preface ;” he begins with the following appeals 
to the devotion of the people,—“ Dominus vo- 
biscum,” The Lord be with you, “‘ Et cum spiritu 
tuo,” And with thy spirit, the faithful respond ; 
“ Sursum Corda,” Lift up your hearts, ‘“‘ Habemus 
ad Dominum,” We have lifted them up unto the 
Lord ; ‘‘ Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro,” Let 


324 CATHOLIGOITY. 


us give thanks to the Lord our God, “ Dignum et 
justum est,” It is meet and just ; the Priest then 
continues alone the Preface in a chant which re- 
calls the worship of ancient Greece and Rome; 
thus between the Priest and the people alternating 
with sweet and solemn strains of music, amid 
rising clouds of sweet-smelling incense, the blaze 
of tapers, the sound of tinkling bells, divine wor- 
ship goes on ;—in this manner all the senses have 
been appealed to, each with its own peculiar 
charm ; the imagination is captivated by what is 
hallowed and beautiful, and the mind is elevated 
to the contemplation of heavenly things as the 
heart is filled with devotion and awe ;—all that 
can combine to make a worship grand, solemn, 
and imposing,—Heaven and Harth, Men and An- 
gels, and the most precious gifts of nature and 
art are divinely joined in this one grand act of 
Religion ! 

But still more is designed to complete this act 
of Divine Worship, and this is God ; God, not as 
in the Jewish Temple, His presence concealed 
behind a cloud, but truly and really the present 
Godhead in his own Divine Person. Neither is 
this refused ;—at the awful moment a hushed 
silence reigns throughout the kneeling throng, 
which is only broken by the sound of bells, by the 


APPLIANCES. 325 


falling of the censer chains, and softened tones 
of the organ ; and now the Priest, by the divine 
might of his ordination, pronounces the sacred 
words of consecration over the elements of bread 
and wine, and their substance is changed into the 
Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, where- 
with is his Soul and Divinity. Behold God, the 
great God, the all-loving and eternal God, really, 
truly, and personally present on the altar of Chris- 
tians ; while they with clasped hands, bowed down 
heads, humbled minds and hearts, penetrated by 
gratitude and love, adore in their Temple Him 
whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain ! 

And does this really sublime and all-compre- 
hensive act of Worship end here? Was there 
ever one conceived so wonderfully adapted to man’s 
twofold nature of matter and spirit? “It is 
surely complete,” may well exclaim the earnest 
soul who entered with us. But no, Catholic 
Worship has not in this reached its highest ex- 
pression. There is a more sublime act of Religion 
than prayer, or praise, or even adoration, and that 
is, Communion with God. For Divine Worship, 
to reach its highest aim, must end in union of the 
soul with God, and that in the most direct and 
perfect way possible. ~ 

The Sacrifice continues and becomes the Sacra- 


326 CATHOLIGCITY. 


ment of Communion of Love. The Priest lifts up 
his voice and chants aloud “the Lord’s Prayer,” 
and while reciting in secret several prayers pre- 
paratory to communion, the choir sings the “ Ag- 
nus Dei ;” after having received the consecrated 
elements, he communicates the Holy Sacrament 
to the faithful. Oh wonderful mystery ! God 
dwells in the hearts of his creatures corporally ! 
Man participates in the Divinity! God and Man 
become One! 

Prayers of thanksgiving follow ; the Deacon, 
turning to the people, sings ‘‘ Ite missa est,’ 
Go, the mass is ended ; the Priest kisses the altar 
where lie the relics of martyrs and saints, and, 
turning to the people, raises his consecrated hands 
and bestows upon them the ‘* Benediction ;” the 
‘last Gospel” is read in silence, and the Priest, 
with his white-robed boys and assistants, leaves 
the altar and the sanctuary, for the great function 
of the Catholic Worship is now indeed completed. 

Oh that we could find language to convey that. 
which passes within the hearts of pious Catholics 
at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! But we are 
not writing for them; our purpose is to carry 
some light into the minds of those who, not pos- 
sessing the precious gift of Catholic Faith, see 
only the splendor of her visible glory, and not the 
Divinity which is within. 


APPLIANCES. 327 


Although the celebration of Solemn High Mass 
is the grandest rite of the Catholic Ritual, yet it 
by no means exhausts the rich treasures of her 
ceremonial expression. This allows her to give to 
her children full liberty to choose what is best 
suited to their tastes, without requiring, as among 
the sects, each individual to constrain himself to 
one, fixed; invariable form. Like a true mother, 
she supplies so generously from her unfailing 
wealth, that the most ardent imagination may be 
satiated, whilst she leaves the more retired at 
liberty to adopt what they may find most congenial 
to the spirit of their devotion. She is like a garden 
filled with every variety of enchanting flowers, 
through which her children may pass, selecting 
those which please them most; and, whatever 
their choice may be, she is equally content, since 
her only aim is to attract each soul in its own 
natural way, and lead it to worship the one, only, 
true God. 

Hence the Catholic Church is equally adapted 
to the class of minds which is less influenced and 
impressed by religious ceremonies, minds of a 
simple form and mould. She does not require the 
presence of such at those functions when it appears 
as if she exhausted her rich treasures to engage 
the senses and captivate the imagination. To 


328 CATHOLICITY. 


such the great mysteries and doctrines of the 
Christian faith are in their simplicity equally im- 
pressive, and even perhaps more so, when un- 
adorned and expressed in the plainest manner. 
For such there is the Low Mass, with its simple 
and rapid rites, so silent and solemn, that the 
most rigid Spiritualist would fail to suffer distrac- 
tion. Her Temples, too, are always open, within 
~ which one may retire, and, in heavenly silence and 
repose, rest in the presence of God. She sanctions 
the spirit which leads the hermit into the desert, 
there alone with the beauty of nature to commune 
with Heaven, no less than that which asks the 
aid of her magnificent service to enable it to rise 
to the contemplation of the First True, the First 
Good, the First Fair. 


XXXIV. 


Hellowshiy. 


“My spirit yearns to bring 
The lost ones back—yearns with desire intense— 
And struggles hard to wring 
The bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence.” 
BRYANT. 


AWN possesses powers which extend far beyond 
the visible world, into the realms of the un- 
seen, for he is essentially a spiritual being. One 
of the deepest yearnings of his soul-is to commu- 
nicate with those of the spirit world. 

“That the dead are seen no more,” says Dr. 
Johnson, “I will not undertake to maintain, 
against the concurrent testimony of all ages and 
of all nations. There is no people, rude or 
learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are 
not related and believed. This opinion, which 
prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could 
become universal only by its truth ; those who 


330 CATHOLIGCITY. 


never heard of one another, would not have agreed 
in a tale which nothing but experience can make 
credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, 
can very little weaken the general evidence ; and 
some who deny it with their tongues, confess it by 
their fears,” * 

“‘ Let us then not imagine,” says the celebrated 
Dr. Channing, ‘that the usefulness of the good 
is finished at death. Then rather does it begin. 
Let us not judge of their state by associations 
drawn from the stillness and silence of the grave. 
They have gone to the abodes of life, of warmth 
and action. They have gone to fill a larger place 
in the system of God. Death has expanded their 
powers. The clogs and fetters of the perishable 
body have fallen off, that they may act more freely 
and with more delight in the grand system of cre- 
ation... . It would be grateful to believe that 
their influence reaches to the present state, and 
we certainly are not forbidden to indulge the 
hope.” TF 

It is not only consoling to believe thus, but so 
deeply rooted is the conviction, that there are 
moments when it asserts its vitality, in spite of 
our creeds or ourselves. 


In Dr. Johnson’s. journal of March 28, 1753, 


* Rasselas, + Memoirs, p. 276. 


FELLOWSHIP. 331 


we find: “I kept this day as the anniversary of 
my Tetty’s death, with prayers and tears in the 
morning. In the evening, I prayed for her con- 
ditionally, if it were lawful.” * And in a prayer 
which he wrote, he supplicates that he may “ en- 
joy the good effects of the attention and ministra- 
tion of his departed wife.” + 

Here is a true expression of a secret and spon- 
taneous instinct of the human heart; for who 
believes, when kneeling by the grave of the loved 
and lost, that the sacred ties of friendship and 
affection, eternal as the laws of his being, are 
wholly severed? Does he not rather, at that 
hour, become aware, for the first time, how close 
were the bonds that bound him to the departed, 
and exclaim, in grateful relief: The living and 
the dead indeed make one communion ! 

Dr. Channing, in writing to a friend on the 
death of his child, says: “‘ Our child is lost to our 
sight, but not to our faith and hope, perhaps not 
to our beneficent influences. Is there no means 
of gratifying our desire of promoting his happiness ? 
The living and dead make one communion.” { 

‘“‘ Very curious and interesting as a trait of 
character and feeling is the passage,” says Mrs. 
Jameson, in speaking of Niebuhr, ‘in which he 

* Boswell's Life. t Ibid. + Memoirs, p. 238. 


332 CATHOLIOCITY. 


represents himself, in the dangerous confinement 
of his second wife, as praying to his first wife for 
succor.” | 

‘In my terrible anxiety,” he says, ‘‘ I prayed 
most earnestly and entreated my Milly, too, for 
help. I comforted Gretchen by telling her that 
Milly would send her help. When she was at the 
worst, she sighed out, ‘Oh, cannot your Amelia 
send me a blessing ?’ ” 

“This is curious,” continues the narrator of 
the anecdote, ‘‘ from a Protestant and a Philoso- 
pher. It shows that there may be something 
nearly allied to our common nature in the Roman 
Catholic invocation to the saints, and to the souls 
of the dead.” * 

The religions of all nations, with each individual 
consciousness, witness to the belief of mankind in 
a communion between the soul and spirits, between 
the living and the departed. The ancient religions 
of Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, of the Britons, 
Australians and American Indians, give the same 
testimony. Also the belief in magis, soothsaying, 
conjurations, necromancy, and every other super- 
stitious practice, which places us, as is supposed, 
in secret relations with the inhabitants of another 
world. , 

* Thoughts and Memoirs, p. 201. 


FELLOWSHIP. 333 


The demon of Socrates, the spectre of Brutus, 
the guardian of Cesar, give the same confirmation. 
The histories of Mahomet, Cromwell, Napoleon, 
Jacob Beehme, Swedenborg, Rousseau, Fourrier, 
and the works of all the celebrated poets, both 
ancient and modern, are stamped with the strong- 
est evidence of the working of this instinct in the 
soul ; and they owe not a little of their genius and 
popularity to its strange workings and fascinating 
power. 

One of the highest purposes of Religion, if it 
means any thing, is to reveal to man the invisible 
world, and bring him into closer communion with 
its inhabitants, by teaching him to live more com- 
pletely under its spiritual influences, because he 
is destined to move in its sphere, and there, amidst 
its glorious spirits, enjoy perfect bliss. Religion 
must do this, for, if she fails, men seek, in a blind 
hope, the gratification of this instinct elsewhere. 

Hence the origin and extension of spiritualism 
in Protestant communities, and the vain endeavors 
to quiet the restlessness of unsatisfied hearts by 
table-tipping, rappings, mediums, and other fatal 
experiments ; for Protestantism has signally failed 
to direct the religious nature of man to a perfect 
development. 

“The number of spiritualists,” says a public 


334 CATHOLIGCITY. 


journal, ‘is gradually increasing in this country, . 
if we may judge from the number of journals which 
are devoted to its interests. ‘There are nine weekly 
newspapers and six monthly magazines engaged 
in defending its principles and maintaining its 
cause. Seven of the media practice the healing 
art, their pharmacopeia being a collection of 
recipes from the spirit land. Some merely describe 
the character of diseases. Some of them make use 
of the electro-medicated baths, which are made 
ready by females. 

“Other media remain at the threshold of the 
science, content with the first step of induction. 
These tip tables, write letters from the other 
world, describe persons ‘‘out of the form,” set 
chairs and bells in motion, and phosphoric fire... 
Others test the truth of their claims by communi- 
cating with the dead, whose awful and mysterious 
fate is developed to anxious friends, not often in 
the language they were wont to use when living, 
or with much regard to orthography, etymology, 
syntax or prosody. 

“A society exists for the diffusion of spiritual 
knowledge, which is in full activity ; and there 
are eighteen lecturers, of both sexes, who are 
recognized as authorities in their peculiar vocation. 
There are initiatory circles for the conversion of 


FELLOWSHIP. 335 


unbelievers, and others where things unutterable 
are witnessed by the spirit communists. 

“The effect of spiritualism on individual char- 
acter has thus far not been happy. In most of 
the cases those persons who have given themselves 
up to it, appear to be completely disorganized. 
They leave their former pursuits in life, they sink 
from their professional and business standing, and 
strange and wild expressions fasten upon their 
countenances—‘ they seem to walk in a vain show, 
disquieting themselves in vain.’ Suicide has at- 
tended in the train, and every few days we hear 
of departures for the spirit-land, of the most sin- 
gular and melancholy character.” 

These are the deadly fruits of the religion of 
the 16th century, which falsely charged the ancient 
Christian faith with superstition, and pretended 
to emancipate the human mind by a purified gos- 
pel. ‘‘ Men had repudiated angels and saints,” 
says one of its own votaries, “‘ but they still de- 
voutly believed in devils and witches. The benign 
miracles of female charity were the inventions and 
impositions of a lying priesthood ; but woe unto 
him who doubted the power of an old woman to 
ride on a broomstick, or of a young woman to 
entertain Satan as her emissary in mischief! All 
the women who perished by judicial condemnation, 


336 CATHOLICITY. 


for heresy, in the days of the Inquisition, did not 
equal the number cf women condemned judicially 
as witches, hanged, tortured, burned, drowned like 
small dogs, in the first century of the Reformed 
Church, and these horrors were enacted in the 
most civilized countries in Hurope, by grave 
magistrates and ecclesiastics, who were proud of 
having thrown off the Roman yoke and of reading 
their Bible.” * ) 

And now, what direction does the Catholic 
religion give to these spiritual instincts of man 
which point beyond the grave ? 

In the first place, it teaches that man has the 
most intimate relations with the brightest and 
most beautiful of all God’s creatures, the Blessed 
Angels. : 

“The Angels are commissioned,” so teaches the 
Catechism of the Council of Trent, ‘by Divine 
Providence to guard the human race, and to be 
present with every man to protect him from injury. 
As parents, when their children have occasion to 
travel a dangerous way infested by robbers, appoint 
persons to guard and assist them in case of an 
attack, so has our Heavenly Father placed over 
each of us, In our journey towards our heavenly 
country, Angels, guarded by whose vigilance and 
* Mrs, Jameson. Sisters of Charity, p. 283. 


FELLOWSHIP. BByA 


assistance, we may escape the ambushes of our 
enemies, repel their fierce attacks, and proceed 
directly on our journey, secured by their guiding 
protection against the devious tracks into which 
our treacherous enemy would mislead us, and pur- 
suing steadily the path that leads to heaven.” 

In regard to ‘‘the important advantages which 
flow to the human race from this special superin- 
tending Providence, the functions and the admin- 
istrations of which are intrusted to Angels, who 
hold a middle place between man and the Divinity,” 
the same Catechism cites several instances, among 
others that of “the Angel Raphael, who was ap- 
pointed by God the companion and guide of 
Tobias,” and ‘‘ the Angel who delivered the Prince 
of the Apostles from prison,” and it concludes in 
the following words: ‘ The Sacred Scriptures 
abound in examples which give us an idea of the 
magnitude of the benefit conferred on us by the 
ministry of Angels, whose tutelary protection is 
not confined to particular occasions or persons, but 
extends to each individual of the human race, from 
the hour of birth.”’* 

Consonant with Catholic belief, Saint Thomas, 
the Angelic Doctor, teaches, “that there are also 
orders of Angels who guard and protect commu- 
nities and nations.” T 

* On the word “ Father,” in the Lord’s Prayer. +2, 118, Art, 3, 


—-338 CATHOLICITY. 


On the same subject Saint Augustine beauti- 
fully says: ‘‘ From the bosom of the sovereign 
beatitude which the Angels possess in the holy 
city, the celestial Jerusalem, from which we are 
now exiled, these blessed spirits watch over us, in 
order to bring us back to this common country, 
where we will one day be satiated in drawing with 
them from the divine source of eternal truth.” * 

The ground for the honor paid to the Angels 
in the Catholic Church, is that law of our being 
which exacts of us homage to exalted dignity and 
virtue of every kind. The Angels are the ideal of 
our own spirituality realized, and our communica- 
tion with them tends to elevate and to assimilate 
our natures in purity and perfection to theirs, Our 
devout affection for these purest creations refines 
the heart, and with a tender confidence aids our 
approach to our common Parent. 

Our faculty of communion with the spiritual 
world is not exhausted by our relations with the 
Angels. The Catholic Faith teaches, that ‘“‘ The 
Saints, reigning with Christ, offer up their prayers 
to God, for men ; that it is good and profitable 
supplantly to invoke them, and to have recourse 
to their prayers, help, and assistance, to obtain 
favors from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our 
Lord, who alone is our Redeemer and Saviour.” f 


* On Psalm 62. + Council of Trent. Ses. 25 De Invyoe, 


FELLOWSHIP. 339 


The Catholic doctrine regarding the Saints is, ° 
therefore, two-fold. In the first place, that the 
Saints of God make intercession before him for 
their brethren on earth ; and, in the second place, 
that it is lawful to invoke their intercession. 

The effect of this belief is thus beautifully 
described by a Catholic writer. ‘“ The brightness 
of the saints is naught else than an irradiation from 
the glory of Christ, and a proof of his infinite 
power, who out of dust and sin is able to raise up 
eternal spirits of light. He who, therefore, revereth 
the Saints, glorifieth Christ, from whose power they 
spring and whose true divinity they attest.” 

““'They are permanent models of Christ’s life, 
in whom the Saviour has stamped his own image, 
in whom he, in a thousand ways, reflects himself, 
and in whom, exhibiting to us patterns for all the 
relations of life, he brings vividly before our view 
the whole compass of virtues rendered possible 
through him.” * 

The circle of our relations with the unseen 
world is not completed with the Angels and Saints. 
There exists a communion between the living and 
the dead. 

The Catholic Church teaches that there is a 
place where the souls of the just are detained till 
they are purified, in order to be admitted into their 

* Moehler, Symb, 


340 CATHOLICITY. 


* eternal country, “into which nothing defiled -en- 
tereth.” ‘For not all believers, who have been 
members of this terrestrial church, and have de- 
parted from it, with signs of the covenant of love, 
enter immediately, on their passage to eternity, into 
those relations of bliss, destined, from the begin- 
ning, for those who love God in Christ. Accord- 
ing as they quit this earthly life, either slightly 
touched by divine love, or by it effectually freed 
from the stain of sin, they pass into different forms 
of a new existence. The former are transferred to 
a state suited to the still defective, moral, and re- 
ligious life of their souls, and which is destined to 
bring them to perfection; the latter to a state of 
happiness, corresponding to their consummate sanc- 
tification. The first, like the members of the 
Church terrestrial, are with reason included in the 
suffering Church ; for their peculiar existence must 
be considered as one of suffering, for they are not 
only still passing through the fire of purification, 
but are also subjected to punishment, for it de- 
pended on themselves alone, by the right use of 
their free will, during their earthly career, to estab- 
lish themselves in a perfect, intimate, and un- 
troubled union with God.” * | 
What is more comforting and sustaining to the 
heart, what more precious privilege of piety than 
* Moehler Symb. 


FELLOWSHIP. 341 


the teaching of the Church that we, who are on 
this side the grave, can by our prayers, by our 
alms-deeds and other good works, alleviate the suf- 
ferings of those beyond it P ‘‘ How admirable is 
this intercourse between the living son and the 
deceased father—between the mother and daugh- 
ter—between husband and wife—between life and 
death! What affecting considerations are sug- 
gested by this tenet of religion! My virtue, in- 
significant being as I am, becomes the common 
property of Christians ; and, as I participate in 
the guilt of Adam, s0, also, the good that I possess 
passes to the account of others! the prayers of 
your Nisus will be felt by some Euryalus beyond 
the grave. The rich, whose charity you describe, 
may well share their abundance with the poor ; 
for the pleasure which they take in performing this 
simple and grateful act, will receive its reward from 
the Almighty in the release of their parents from 
the expiatory flames. What a beautiful feature 
in our religion, to impel the heart of man to virtue 
by the power of love, and to make him feel that 
the very coin which gives bread to an indigent 
fellow-being, entitles, perhaps, some rescued soul 
to an eternal position at the table of the Lord.”* 

What contrasts are presented in this chapter 


* Chateaubriand. 


342 CATHOLIOGCITY. 


to the intelligent Reader! On the one hand a 
Religion pretending to be a purified Christianity, 
suppressing one of the most wonderful and deeply- 
rooted instincts of man’s spiritual nature, by shut- 
ting out from his vision, and cutting off from his 
religious sympathies, his relations with the glorious 
spirits of Heaven and the blessed dead ! A Religion ' 
which admits the temptations and wicked influence 
of the devil and his fallen angels over men, while 
it denies the inspiring and beneficent influences of 
the Holy Angels and Blessed Saints of God! A 
Religion which closes up the avenues of the soul 
for the reception of heavenly light, while it opens 
' them to that darkness bearing with it the most 
fearful and diabolical agencies! A Religion which 
repudiates “ The Communion of Saints,” and ac- 
knowledges that of evil spirits ! 

On the other hand, the Catholic Religion opens 
to our vision the realms of the invisible ; directs 
all our spiritual instincts heavenward ; and places 
us in intimate relations with the world of the good 
and blessed. The Angels are our constant com- 
panions, whispering to us heavenly thoughts; the 
Saints are not idle spectators, but with their 
prayers aid us in our struggles and rejoice in our 
triumphs ; and the departed accompany us in our 
acts of piety even to the foot of God’s holy altar. 


FELLOWSHIP. , 343 


Catholicity makes the invisible world more real to 
her faithful children than the world we live in; 
the Angels and the Saints are their constant com- 
panions ; their future life is made familiar to them 
here, because their ‘‘ conversation is in heaven.” 

Have you not observed, inquiring Reader, in 
the faces of the Saints, such as the old Catholic 
artists loved to picture them, something angelic, 
celestial, something one knows not precisely what, 
except that it is of heaven? Have you not wit- 
nessed something akin to a smile awakened by the 
sight of an Angel beaming from the face of some 
devout Catholic while at devotion? What is 
this? It is the soul that has caught a glimpse 
of heaven, and, recovering its angelic beauty for a 
moment, transfigures the body. And why is this 
found in Catholicity alone? It is because the 
Catholic Religion alone sanctions and directs man’s 
spiritual instincts into their right channels, and 
presents to them the true and noblest objects of 
gratification. 


XXXY. 


Tlemorials. 


“The love 
Of mighty minds doth hallow, in the core 
Of human hearts, the ruin of a wall 
Where dwelt the wise and wondrous.” 
Byron. 


NTIMATELY connected with the instinct of 
communion with angelic spirits of the blessed 
dead, is the feeling of veneration for the remains, 
the monuments, and even the localities rendered 
sacred by the gifted and the good, and by the 
heroes of humanity. 

How few can be found who have not among 
their heart-treasures some trifle, kept sacred, either 
in memory of departed greatness or of human love. 
Scarce a family, distinguished or obscure, but has 
' some relic of their ancestry which is transmitted 
as an heir-loom from generation to generation, 
with feelings of actual reverence. Innumerable 


MEMORIALS. 345 


are the monuments raised by nations in honor of 
their sages, heroes, and distinguished sons. The 
remains of the truly great, their shrines, birth- 
places, dwellings, and indeed whatever was asso- 
ciated with them, excites indefinable sensations of 
enthusiasm and loving respect. “* Stratford-on- 
Avon does not contain the remains of mere Eng- 
lish genius—it is a place of pilgrimage to the 
generous and high-hearted of all countries ; and 
their names are to be found as on the summit of 
the pyramids, encircling the walls of Shakspeare’s 
house. At his grave meet the gifted of all ages, 
countries, and times.” Are not St. Paul’s and 
Westminster Abbey encircled with monuments 
consecrated to the memory of the genius, heroism, 
and virtue of the English people? Are not the 
public parks-of our large cities adorned with the 
statues of Washington and those whom we delight 
to honor ? And a true relic we find treasured in 
one of our public buildings at the seat of Govern- 
ment, a full suit of dress belonging to the ‘‘ Father 
of his country,” and the coat and sword of the 
Hero of New Orleans. What sums have not been 
paid for a hat of Napoleon I., or a tooth of a Nel- 
son? And many of our own countrymen prize a 
snuff-box made from the wood of Mount Vernon, 
or a walking-stick from the frigate Constitution. 


346 CATHOLIGCITY. 


No instinct is more universal in its sympathies, 
more popular in its expression, more natural to 
man, than that of veneration for the great, good, 
and wise, and all associated with their memories. 
Religion does well in directing it to its divine des- 
tination. 

But here, as elsewhere, the Protestant Refor- 
mation did its utmost to make a waste in the 
human heart, by destroying with blind hatred 
every thing calculated to sanctify and control this 
common sentiment. . 

Every one is aware, who has the slightest ac- 
quaintance of the religion of the Reformers, that it 
annihilated, where its sway was paramount, the 
crucifix and the cross, pictures of the Saviour and 
the Virgin and blessed Mother, and of his Apostles 
and his Saints, the richly-painted .-glass which 
represented them, or other pictured truths of 
Religion. Even the tombs of the saints and mar- 
tyrs were broken open, and their consecrated 
relics destroyed or cast to the four winds of heaven, 
So ardent were they in their determination to rid 
Christianity of all superstition, that they were not 
satisfied with less than robbing God’s temples of 
all that was beautiful or holy ; and to obliterate 
their pictured walls, they whitewashed them— 
emblematic indeed of their blank, barren, and 
withering creed. 


MEMORIALS. 347 


Such is the response of the Reformation to our 
universal respect for the religious memorials of 
sanctified genius arid holy heroism. Had there 
existed an abuse of these, it would have been a 
most laudable enterprise to undertake its correc- 
tion. But such was not the spirit of the Reforma- 
tion ; possessed as it were by the demon of de- 
struction, under the mask of hatred to superstition, 
it aimed at demolishing the Church of Christ. 

A religion professing to be Catholic would be 
quite the reverse, if it did not extend its benedic- 
tion to all our primal instincts, giving them a 
divine direction. Hence it will not be difficult for 
us to see how Catholicity meets this particular 
phase of our inborn propensities. The authorita- 
tive doctrine of the Church on this point as de- 
clared by the Council of Trent is as follows : 

“The holy bodies of holy martyrs and of 
others now living with Christ, which bodies were 
living members of Christ, and the temples of the 
Holy Ghost, and which by Him are to be raised 
to eternal life, and to be glorified, are to be vene- 
rated by the faithful, through which bodies many 
benefits are bestowed by God on men. 

‘“‘ Woreover that the images of Christ, of the 
Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are 
to be had and retained particularly in temples, and 


348 CATHOLIGCITY. 


that due honor and veneration are to be given to 
them ; not that any divinity or virtue is believed to 
be in them on account of which they are to be wor- 
shipped, or that any thing is to be asked of them, 
or that trust is to be reposed in images as was of 
old by the Gentiles who placed their hope in 
idols ; but because the honor which is shown them 
is referred to the prototypes which these images 
represent ; in such wise that. by the images we 
kiss, and before which we uncover the head and 
prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ, and we ven- 
erate the saints whose similitude they bear, as by 
the decrees of Councils, and especially of the 
Second Synod of Niczea, has been defined against 
the opponents of images. 

“And the Bishops shall carefully teach this, 
that by means of the histories of the mysteries of 
our Redemption portrayed by paintings and other 
representations, the people are instructed and con- 
firmed in the habit of remembering and continual- 
ly revolving in mind the articles of faith ; as also 
great profit is derived from all sacred images, not 
only because the people are thereby admonished 
of the benefit and gifts bestowed upon them by 
Christ, but also the miracles which God has per- 
formed by means of the saints and their salutary 
examples, are set before the eyes of the faithful, 


MEMORIALS. 349 


so that they may give God thanks for those things, 
may order their own lives and manners in imita- 
tion of the saints, and may be excited to adore 
and love God, and to cultivate piety. 

“And if any abuses have crept in amongst 
these holy and salutary observances, the holy 
Synod ardently desires that they may be utterly 
abolished.” * 

It would be difficult indeed to go astray with 
this clear definition. It says to man, you render 
homage to the wisdom of your statesmen, the 
bravery of your generals, and to all benefactors of 
humanity. You respect their tombs, you inaugu- 
rate their statues, and erect magnificent monu- 
ments to their glory ; and in this you but follow 
the natural impulses given to the heart by its 
divine Creator. Be not so unjust to His religion 
as to cast aside or smother any of your natural 
emotions upon entering the Temples dedicated 
solely to His worship. Nowhere has He cast out 
nature from His Temples. Bear then into His 
divine presence the noblest of His works, your own 
free hearts and souls, with all your manhood ; 
but let it act in a divine order by honoring the 
sacred memorials of your Saviour, His saints and 
martyrs, and the glorious heroes of Christian faith. 


* Sess. xxv, 


350 CATHOLIOCITY. 


You look at the statue of your country’s 
liberator with proud hearts and loving reverence ; 
what then should you feel with a crucifix before 
you, the image of Christ, the Saviour of your im- 
mortal soul? Ah! such grateful love and sorrow 
as words cannot express, and a heavenly spirit of 
emulation may excite you to bear with patient 
suffering that cross which presses with more or less 
weight upon every human heart. See the repre- 
sentations of the wonderful agonies of His mar- 
tyrs—behold the glorious virtues of His saints ;— 
when you visit their shrines, see their pictures, or 
venerate their relics, exalt your sentiments to their 
highest level of existence! Be ennobled and 
hallowed in their presence, made humbler and 
better ; for when men are not, it 1s because they 
have been taught to stifle their innocent impulses, 
or to regard them with distrust as profane and 
superstitious. Notwithstanding these false teach- 
ings, a better nature will at times find expression. 
A Protestant writer says :— 

‘““ Have not Dying Christs taught fortitude to 
the virtuous sufferer? Have not Holy Families 
cherished and ennobled domestic affections ? The 
tender genius of Christian morality, even in its 
most degenerate state, has made the Mother and 
the Child the highest objects of affectionate super- 


MEMORIALS. 351 


stition. How much has that beautiful superstition, 
by the pencils of great artists, contributed to hu- 
manize mankind ? ” * 

It is surprising that “‘ superstition” should 
produce so beneficent results ; but this word came 
not from the writer’s heart ; it was the expression 
of his heartless creed imposed on him. 

Another writer says that ‘ pictures tell us on 
the walls the stories of sacred history for the 
benefit of the pious unlearned, who could not read 
these only when thus narrated in this universal 
language.” + 

Our New-Yorker would limit the religious in- 
fluence of the productions of genius to the pious 
unlearned ; he might also include the refined and 
cultivated, as we find their dwellings often pro- 
fusely adorned with works of art. Surely their 
faculties and tastes have not become so refined 
that it is beyond the powers of genius to raise 
them still higher in their religious aspirations, no 
Jess than in their natural conceptions, at least in 
some moments. 

Is not Dr. Durbin a learned man? Now 
listen to his experience :— : 

“The Crucifixion, by Vandyke, struck me 
most forcibly ; I could not repress indignation, 


Sir James Mackintosh. + Rome, as seen by a New Yorker, 


352 CATHOLICITY. 


sorrow, even tears, as I gazed upon the image of 
the crucified stooping meekly and yielding his 
bleeding back to the strokes of the scourge, while 
the blue marks of the thong-scourged verged into 
blackness, and the dark blood trickled from the 
fearful wounds.” * And on Holbein’s painting of 
the Passion of Christ, he says: “‘ I never was so 
affected by a picture, and, for the first time, felt 
that my religious feelings were improved by gazing 
at one.” T 

We have taken the testimony of a Methodist 
minister and Doctor of Divinity ; let us add that 
of the distinguished and eloquent Unitarian, Dr. 
Channing :— 

‘When I casted my eyes on the pictures on 
the walls, which placed before me the holy men 
of departed ages, now absorbed in devotion and 
lost in rapture, now enduring with meek courage 
and celestial hope the agonies of a painful death 
in defence of the truth, 1 was touched, I hope 
made better... . These sainted dead spoke to my 
heart, and I was sometimes led to feel as if an 
hour on Sunday spent in this communion were as 
useful to me as if it had been spent in a Protes- 
tant Church ... They were to me living, venerable 
witnesses to Christ, to the power of religion, to the 


* Observations in Europe, p. 249. + p. 276. 


MEMORIALS. ~ 34a 


grandeur of the human soul. I saw what men 
might suffer for the Truth, how they could rise 
above themselves, how real might become the 
ideas of God and a higher life. This inward 
reverence for the departed good helped me to feel 
myself as a member of the Church universal... . 
My own heart was a witness to a spiritual fellow- 
ship. Is it not to be desired that all our Churches 
should have services to teach us our union with 
Christ’s body 2 Would not this break our secta- 
rian chains, and awaken a reverence for Christ’s 
spirit, for true goodness, under every name and 
form ? It is not enough to feel that we are mem- 
bers of this or that narrow communion ; Christi- 
anity is universal sympathy.” * 

Thus, when men cast off the prejudice of a 
mistaken education and the fetters of an erroneous 
creed, their truer nature shines forth in expression 
of Catholic doctrines. They begin by admiring 
the beauty of her worship, and end by yearning 
after her communion. 

Yet there are many who resist this and tell us 
that these things are contrary to Christianity ;— 
that Christianity is a purely spiritual worship. 
The Reformation was an attempt to cleanse it 
from superstition, with a return to its primitive 
simplicity. 

* Visit to Europe. Works vol. v. p. 207. 


354 CATHOLIOGITY. 


There is a sense in which it may be said in 
truth, that Christianity is a spiritual religion, but 
the sense in which this idea is usually presented, 
and generally received, is most perniciously false. 
It involves the overthrow of every distinct doctrine 
of Christianity. 

Its great mystery is the Incarnation. This is 
the fountain source of all its mysteries, the centre 
from which radiates all its doctrines, and the basis 
of allits worship. What, now, was the Incarnation ? 
No less than the second person of the Godhead 
becoming man,—the invisible Deity becoming 
visible by taking the nature and form of a rational 
creature,—the Word made Flesh and dwelling 
amongst us. But our purely spiritual worshipper 
informs us that he needs no material aids; he 
communicates with the invisible Deity face to 
face, and worships therefore in spirit and in truth. 

Away then with the idea of the Deity becoming 
visible! The Incarnation, God made Flesh! 
This is a doctrine suited only to a sensual and 
uncultivated people, whose minds are too gross 
and carnal to receive a pure spiritual Religion ! 

We read of the same person being baptized 
with water, blessing children, uttering aloud vocal 
prayers, washing his disciples’ feet, blessing sol- 
emnly bread and wine, chanting psalms ; he does 
all this and many other acts of outward worship. 


MEMORIALS, 355 


But our votary of an exclusively spiritual 
Christianity and worship, would have us worship 
interiorly, in spirit. Well then, away with these 
Jewish notions of outward worship, sacraments, 
and such like forms. We must free Christianity 
from the prejudices of Judaism. God is a spirit, 
and those who would worship Him must come to 
him in spirit. 

The tremendous drama of his Passion begins, ° 
He is apprehended with a kiss, bound with cords, 
and brought before the Roman Governor, sent to 
Herod with a white garment, the dress of fools, 
and spit upon ; condemned by Pilate to be pub- 
licly scourged, a crown of thorns is placed upon 
his head, a tattered purple garment is thrown 
around his shoulders, a reed is placed in his hands. 
In this heart-sickening condition he is exhibited 
to a populace, who cry out, Crucify him! 

Now he is condemned to death, and carries a 
heavy cross upon his lacerated shoulder ; he walks 
publicly through the streets of Jerusalem, while 
the mob deride, and the compassionate weep ; 
weak with the loss of blood, more than once he 
falls under the weight of the Cross; arrived at 
Calvary, he is stripped of his garments, his wounds 
were revealed, his bones might be counted ! 

Naked he is fastened to the Cross ; the iron 


356 CATHOLIGCITY. 


nails pierce first his right and then his left hand ; 
his feet alike are pierced ; the Cross is raised that 
the assembled world may gaze upon this spectacle 
of exquisite agony ; he speaks and: prays aloud, 
and, crying out it is finished, he gives up the 
ghost ; a soldier approaches, and stabs him with a 
lance through the heart ! 

What now will our spiritual Christian wor- 
shipper say to all this public display of physical 
torture ? Christianity is of course a spiritual 
Religion, and does not address the senses! Christ 
might have redeemed the world with a prayer in 
solitude to his heavenly Father ; a tear, a sigh 
would have sufficed. No believer in his divinity 
dares deny this. Why, stickler for a spiritual wor- 
worship, why this display before the world, of suf- 
fering, of a cruel crucifixion, and a most fearful 
tragedy ? Be consistent; tell us that Christ 
misunderstood his mission; he appealed to the 
senses, to vulgar and uncultivated minds ; he was 
affected by Jewish notions, and it was left for you 
to give to the world a Christianity pure, perfect, 
spiritual! Fall down before you cry out all hail, 
the true Messiah has come ! 

In this way, with the idea of a reformed spirit- 
ual worship, we have a Christianity without Christ, 
and a Religion destitute of all worship. 


MEMORIALS. 357 


But Jesus Christ, as the Author of Human 
Nature, understood better the laws and economy 
of life. All the great truths He undertook to 
teach mankind, he made visible and palpable. 

The idea of God was almost obliterated from 
the minds of men, and God is made flesh ; the 
sentiment of love and human brotherhood was 
nearly extinguished in men’s hearts, and God so 
loves them as to die the most painful of deaths, 
the death of the Cross ; the immortality of the 
soul was doubted by many, and Jesus Christ rises 
triumphantly from the grave, and in the presence 
of hundreds ascends visibly up to Heaven. It was 
thus palpably that our Redeemer taught the great 
truths of His Religion. 

The Church, guided by His Spirit, continues 
so to teach the world by outward rites, ceremonies, 
signs, pictures, and by embodying divine truths in 
such forms as to be immediately recognized and 
understood by every degree of capacity and by all 
classes of men. 


XXXVI. 


Coawelusion, 


“The world is awakening to the idea of union.”—EMErson. 


E, aspirations of Reason so eminently dis- 

tinguish man in his superiority to the animal 
creation, that loyalty to these constitutes the high- 
est nobility and dignity of his nature. 

Philosophy for long centuries has vainly en- 
deavored to solve the riddle of man’s destiny, and 
answer his aspirations. Man is constrained to 
look elsewhere for adequate answers. This is a 
dictate of Reason, no less than a cry from the 
conscience of the whole human race. 

Christianity is the only Religion that can rea- 
sonably claim the attention of all mankind. There 
is.no rational hope, not the faintest prospect of any 
other satisfactory Religion. Hither we must be- 


CONCLUSION. 359 


come Christians, or abandon our religious natures 
to the agonizing alternatives of doubt, despair ; a 
condition which terminates in the death of the 
soul, 

The Protestant form of Christianity in its 
exposition of Christian Doctrines contradicts the 
dictates of Reason, shocks the convictions of con- 
science, and is subversive of all human dignity. 
The more intelligent and conscientious of its ad- 
herents have awakened to this recognition, and 
hence the Protestant Religion has ceased to possess 
areal hold upon their convictions, or to retain 
their respect. 

Skepticism, infidelity, ssid can never satisfy 
our religious nature, for they are the denial of its 
convictions. Unitarianism, deism, pantheism, under 
the light and quickening influences of Christianity, 
are, beyond all measure, inadequate to our deep 
religious necessities. 

The only road open for us to be Christians, 
consistent with Reason, with moral rectitude, and 
with a proper respect for ourselves, is to become 
Catholic. For the expositions of Christian Doc- 
trines by the Catholic Church are consonant with 
the dictates of Reason, in harmony with our moral 
feelings, and favorable to the highest conceptions 
of the dignity of human nature. 


360 CATHOLICITY. 


Nations unaided by the powerful influences of 
Religion cannot realize their destinies. Our own 
country is becoming conscious of this truth. The 
question now pressing itself upon the American 
people is, to determine their Religion, as our fathers 
did the character of their political institutions. 
These, under the guidance of an overruling Provi- 
dence, were based on Catholic principles, and 
Catholic views of human nature. 

With the free exertion of Reason, with the 
natural impulses of our instincts, and with the 
silent influences of our noble institutions, the 
American people will rise in the strength of its 
manhood and proclaim itself Catholic. 

Brothers of America! you who look for a Re- 
ligion agreeing with your intelligence, commensu- 
rate with all the wants of your nature, and which 
presents a destiny worthy of your highest efforts, 
investigate the claims of the Catholic Religion, and 
exercise your freedom by paying a loyal homage to 
its Divine Truth. 


THE END. 


cA genial boo’, evidently from the heart of the writer— 
I. T. Weexer-—called ‘Questions of the Soul,’ has been issued. 
However little sympathy one has for the abstract doctrine af 
the wor, its theology does not affect the really devout and 
beautiful spirit which informs each chapter; and it contains same 
‘conservative hints that are not a little needed by all denomima~ 


tions of Christians. Itis very clearly printed.”— Boston Transerzpt.. 


“Tis is a speculative work, in thirty short chapters, uwpem 
religious subjects, designed by the writer to solve, from his owm 
heart’s experience, the problems of life. It is well written, is: 
characterized by strong common-sense views, and is from the pem 


of a sound, profound thinker.”— Boston Atlas, 


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